Superwomen of Eva 2: Blue Defiance
by Mike313
Summary: Even when she realized that her relationship with Gendo wasn't all she once thought it was, Ritsuko felt powerless to change anything. When she happens to find a certain insect shaped artifact, however, the equation changes. Drastically.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Prologue: **The Realization and the Random

The atmosphere within the NERV command center was tense, though that was only to be expected, given the situation. After all, those few personnel who remained knew only too well that the Tenth Angel would soon descend upon the city like the giant sledgehammer of god. If it managed to impact the earth with its AT field still up, Tokyo-3 would be destroyed like a sandcastle subjected to the force of a tidal wave.

"Everything's all set," Misato said to herself, then turned her attention to the bridge crew. "The rest of you can all evacuate now, too. I can handle things on my own from this point on."

"No way!" Aoba said at once. "This is our job, too."

"Right," Makoto agreed earnestly. "We're not leaving."

Maya just gave a firm nod of agreement.

Misato smiled. "Thanks, guys."

_They trust her,_ Ritsuko thought, silently watching the scene from the back of the command center.

She herself didn't trust Misato, not this time. While Ritsuko was perfectly willing to admit that when it came to tactics, Misato was usually insanely brilliant (or perhaps brilliantly insane would be a better way to put it, given the crazy but effective plans the Ops Director sometimes came up with), she had seen the odds of success that the MAGI had given this operation. And she knew that Misato was ignoring them because of her vendetta against the Angels.

It suddenly occurred to her that she could leave. There was no great need for NERV's top scientist at the moment, and there was still time for her to get away and to a safer area of Japan. It would probably go unnoticed if she snuck out, and in any case, she'd already made her opinion of Misato's chosen course of action abundantly clear.

Yet, strangely, she found that she simply didn't have the will to go fleeing from Tokyo-3 at top speed. Despite her knowledge that the city was almost certainly going to be utterly shattered in the near future, killing everyone within it, she couldn't muster the energy to run.

Frowning, she silently examined this strange absence of basic survival instincts she found within herself.

It shocked her to realize that she wasn't driving like a madwoman away from Tokyo-3 because she simply didn't care all that much whether she lived or died. Her life had just become so miserable and joyless that she couldn't generate any fear of death.

_This is a new low, even for you, Akagi,_ she thought dourly.

Part of her lack of enthusiasm was the knowledge that the Commanders were safely away from Japan, meaning that if the city was destroyed and she survived, it would be her, Gendo, and Fuyutski trying to rebuild NERV in time for the next Angel. She just didn't think she could handle that.

Mostly, though, her apathy flowed from issues that weren't likely to change any time soon. The guilt she carried over how she was helping to bring a Third Impact ever closer grew heavier with each passing day, preventing her from sleeping even when she was able to find a few interrupted hours away from work in which she could attempt to rest.

Her "meetings" with Gendo were also becoming increasing mechanical, as he abandoned the various pretenses of romance he'd once made, becoming ever more confident that he had total control of her.

And the worst part was that he was right. Despite how bad her life was now, she was too afraid of Gendo's wrath to defy him. And regardless of how her relationship with the man had decayed, she was too afraid of being alone to leave him.

_I really am pathetic,_ she thought as she looked up at the command center's main screen, wondering when exactly the battle would commence.

* * *

Over an hour later, the Angel finally entered visual range of the city, and the command was given for the EVA Units to move out.

Detaching their umbilical cables, which could only be a hindrance on such a short, do-or-die mission, the three armored giants went sprinting across the landscape. To the few observers, it was an awesome sight, the trio of Evangelions thundering across the city, unable to avoid destroying the asphalt of the streets beneath their enormous boots as they went.

Unfortunately, the Tenth Angel was even greater and more terrible than all three Evangelions put together. An enormous shape like an Egyptian hieroglyphic, its shadow blanketed the entire city as it descended, wreathed in plasma from its entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Looking at it on the main screen with the rest of the personnel in the NERV command center, Ritsuko suddenly knew in her heart that she would never see the sun rise over the horizon ever again.

All three EVA Units were moving at an incredible pace for things as big as they were, but somehow, Unit One managed to give it one particularly great burst of speed, rocketing onto the top of a grassy hill just in time to halt the Angel's descent.

"AT field full power!" Shinji shouted as he raised Unit One's arms.

A hexagonal barrier of energy flashed into being between the Angel and the Evangelion, and to Ritsuko's amazement, the descent of the Tenth Angel was halted.

Then, the ground beneath Unit One's feet began to give. The purple colossus began to visibly struggle with the weight of the gigantic destroyer it was trying to stave off.

Just as it seemed certain that the test-type Evangelion would collapse beneath the might of its foe, the other two EVA's arrived on the scene, adding the strength of their AT fields to Unit One's. There was a great flare of light, and the Angel was actually pushed upward by a short but noticeable distance. Unit Zero tore a hole in the Angel's AT field, and then Unit Two plunged its progressive knife into the core the monstrosity, the red "pupil" of the eye-like Angel.

The Angel's massive AT field abruptly winked out of existence, which robbed the now dead monstrosity of much of its destructive power. With this barrier removed, its now lifeless body flopped down, finally allowed to crash down onto surface.

Yet the sheer mass of the Angel, as well as its rather volatile composition, insured that Tokyo-3 would once again fail to escape a battle unscarred. A great fireball rose up, the light bright enough to blind anyone who was foolish enough to look at it. The force of the blast was enough to blow a massive crater into the ground that would become a member of the group of lakes that Tokyo-3 was collecting.

* * *

A few city blocks away from the hill where the EVA's faced the Tenth Angel sat a museum, which was unable to descend into the Geofront like most of the newer buildings in the city.

It wasn't a large or particularly well appointed facility, as most potential investors had believed—correctly—that putting such a place in the fortress of mankind was an unacceptably risky move.

Yet despite how obviously ill-advised the museum was, those who worked there were very devoted to their jobs, and had managed to procure a number of nice artifacts to display there.

One of these pieces sat in the museum's tiny Egyptian section in a glass case. Apparently a stone carving of a beetle, a small plaque named it the "Scarab of the Pharaoh Kha-Ef-Re."

Of course, no one was present to appreciate any of the exhibits, as the entire city had been evacuated. Everything inside the place was still and silent.

Then the explosion created by the Tenth Angel's destruction tore through the empty museum. Display cases shattered, spraying broken glass everywhere, old documents which had been lovingly restored and preserved were instantly reduced to ashes, and the entire building soon went toppling down.

Yet despite the incredible destructive force, the scarab was not destroyed. Part of the exterior was burned away, but the artifact held up remarkably well under the abuse. The force of the blast sent it soaring high into the air, away from the pile of rubble that had once been a museum and now served as the junkyard for so many other relics. Up and up it went, flying directionless thorough the sky, until it finally returned to the ground, a very impressive distance from the museum that had once held it.

And there it lay, just waiting for someone to pick it up.

* * *

Ritsuko supposed she should have been relieved that she got to drive home that evening, but she simply wasn't. Instead, she found herself almost disappointed and even a little annoyed that Misato's insane gambit had actually worked.

_I'll bet she'll be insufferable from now on,_ she thought sourly. _"Never tell me the odds." That's what she'll say next time I try and talk some sense into her._

Suddenly, as though karma had decided to punish her for thinking ill of her friend, her car began to swerve frighteningly despite her steady grip on her steering wheel. The scientist quickly pulled over and got out of her car to inspect it, soon finding the source of the problem.

"A flat tire," she groaned. "Wonderful."

Well, she was a brilliant scientist with more doctorates than anyone could shake a stick at. She was perfectly capable of changing a tire, she told herself as she popped her trunk.

"Unless I don't have a jack!" she exclaimed as she discovered that she was missing a rather vital tool.

She'd bought her car used, and she'd gone to great lengths to ensure that she didn't buy a lemon. And while she'd demanded that a spare tire be included in the deal, she had _not_ bothered to check of all the equipment needed to use it was there.

_Okay, calm down,_ she told herself, squelching her desire to start screaming and kicking her car. _Just call somebody for help._

The faux blonde got out her cell phone…only to discover that the battery was dead.

With a sigh of disgust, the scientist reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a Zippo lighter. She stuck the cancer stick into her mouth, then opened the lighter and flicked the switch. A few sparks came out, but no flame.

The faux blonde barely resisted the urge to fling her bum lighter to the ground. It was bad enough that the latest battle had made her realize just how utterly pathetic she'd become and how totally miserable she was, but the universe seemed to be doing its level best to inconvenience her at every turn, too.

Tossing her unlit cigarette away, Ritsuko forced herself to take several deep breaths and calm down. Moving with a forced patience, she put her lighter back into her pocket, then popped the hood of her car. Hopefully some Good Samaritan with a jack in their trunk would be along soon.

Unfortunately, Misato had ordered the evacuation of the city, which meant that most of the roads were all but deserted at the moment, because the people had yet to start returning. So Ritsuko was stuck there in the middle of nowhere, with a long, lonely road and a stretch of land that boasted nothing but stringy grass and weeds.

Or at least, so it seemed at first. While Ritsuko was waiting for someone to come along and help her, she happened to spot something blue nestled within a clump of weeds. Curious, and not having anything better to do than investigate, Ritsuko went over to it. Brushing aside the weeds, she was surprised to find what appeared to be a scarab made out of blue stone. It looked ancient, and was roughly the size of a small dinner plate.

She picked it up, and her eyes widened slightly as she got a better look at it. Part of the exterior of the bug was gone, revealing what looked like some very advanced circuitry beneath.

Ritsuko frowned, wondering why anyone would go to the trouble of putting high tech equipment into something like a stone carving. The question of why someone would abandon the thing in the middle of nowhere also occurred to her.

_Maybe if I studied it, I could find out,_ she mused. _At least it would give me something to think about besides…everything else._

She returned to her car and put the scarab on the floor in the back. No sooner had she done this than did another car pull up right behind hers, a man climbing out.

"Hello, miss," he greeted her. "Car trouble?"

"Just a flat tire," Ritsuko said. "I only popped the hood to try and get somebody to stop. I hope you have a jack."

"Of course," the man said. "I'll have you moving again in no time."

* * *

Roughly an hour later, Ritsuko was pulling into the driveway of her modest home, more than ready for the day to be over. Her Good Samaritan had been a nice enough guy, but he'd tried to get her phone number, and it was another thing that Ritsuko simply didn't want to deal with.

_This place smells like cats,_ she thought as she walked inside.

It was an annoyance, but one Ritsuko would have found much more tolerable if she actually had a cat in her place. However, her long, often erratic hours had forced her to send her pet to live with her grandmother, meaning she didn't even have her favorite ball of fur to snuggle up to on long nights.

"Why am I dwelling on this so much?" she wondered aloud. "It's not like I can do anything about it."

Though she was speaking about her cat, Ritsuko quickly realized that her statement was a pretty good description of her entire life.

She felt like the events of that day had…had woken her up, and made her really examine her life, and discover just how terrible it was. But what good was knowing how miserable she was if she couldn't do anything about it? And she made no mistake; there wasn't anything she could do to change things. Gendo Ikari would get what he wanted in the end; Gendo Ikari _always_ got what he wanted, in the end.

_I just want to go back to "sleep,"_ she thought tiredly.

Deciding that she simply wanted this wretched day to end as soon as humanly possible, Ritsuko didn't even bother making or reheating something for her dinner. Instead, she went straight up to her bedroom, deposited the strange scarab that she'd found on top of her dresser, undressed, and went straight to bed.

In minutes, the emotionally drained woman was sleeping fitfully.

* * *

Hours passed in silence, just like any other night. Then, in the small hours of the morning, there was movement from the top of Ritsuko's dresser. The once seemingly inanimate scarab began to move, slowly at first, almost experimentally. Then it appeared to become more sure of itself, and it carefully crawled off the dresser, to the floor, and then toward its new host.

Ritsuko, who was laying on her stomach as she slept, didn't stir as it crawled up on to her, positioning itself at the base of her spine. Nor did she wake as it began to fuse itself with her central nervous system, joining the two of them into a symbiotic relationship.

By the time the process had completed itself, the first, timid rays of dawn sunlight were streaming in through the windows.

And, at last, Ritsuko awoke.

The scientist jerked violently, then quickly turned over and got into a sitting position, a loud gasp escaping her mouth. A voice was speaking inside her head, but it was doing so in a language she couldn't even identify, let alone understand. Terror gripped her as she realized that not only was she hearing disembodied voices, but there was something on her back, and it was growing.

She tried to scream, but instead of the high pitched shriek she'd expected, a babble of mysterious words--similar to the ones she was hearing inside her mind--burst out past her lips instead. She immediately closed her mouth and covered it with her hands, feeling her horror mounting.

_What is_ happening _to me?! _She thought frantically.

Some kind of black and blue material was spreading over her body. So far it had only covered part of her arms and torso, but it was moving quickly. She tried to work her fingers between it and her skin so she could pull it off, but it was to no avail. The stuff felt hard and rigid, like the exoskeleton of an insect.

"No!" she managed to gasp out as she felt it moving up her neck, threatening to cover her head.

It didn't heed her. Seconds later, the material had moved over her face. To her surprise, she was neither blinded nor suffocated by it. Red, transparent lenses formed before her eyes, allowing her to see, and though her nose was covered, she found that she had no need to breathe through her mouth, which remained exposed.

Her panic diminished by the realization that her demise was not imminent, she looked down just in time to see the strange material cover her feet. Her entire body had been engulfed.

Feeling strangely numb, she got to her feet and went to examine herself in her room's full length mirror. Her entire body was covered in the blue and black armor, but the most shocking thing was what was on her back.

The scarab she'd picked up by the side of the road had grown incredibly, until it was large enough to cover her entire back. Its top two legs were draped over her shoulders, while the remaining four clutched at her sides, and the thing's pincers stuck up higher than her head.

"Oh my god," she breathed, "what the hell happened?"

Within her mind, the scarab chattered back at her in its incomprehensible language.

* * *

Author's Notes: I realize that I sort of piled on the angst here, but I felt that I had to. I really can't feel sympathetic toward Ritsuko unless I picture her as feeling really defeated and believing that she's totally unable to stop Gendo by the time she wakes up and realizes how bad things are. I mean, she goes along with his insane plans until she finally decides she's had enough, and then she lashes out…at Rei. If anybody was in a position to stop Gendo, it was her, but she doesn't really seem to try until EoE, and when Plan A fails, she doesn't even make an attempt to shoot him with the gun she brought.

So, I felt like I had to present her in the way I did in order to be able to like her. Which I actually think will turn out pretty well, because who doesn't want to see the woman who's been taking crap from her so-called lover realize she doesn't have to take it anymore and, well, stop taking it?

Anyway, onto the powers. Ritsuko's becoming a relatively obscure superhero, and if you're not sure of who she is, you probably don't know that hero. I'd tell you, but Orionpax09 apparently feels that I can't keep my trap about these things (see his Superwomen of Eva 2: Hunter's Legacy. Seriously, do it, it looks like the start of a fun ride). So you'll just have to wait until next chapter to find out. Or unleash the power of Google. Either one.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter One: **Strange Encounters

"Oh my god," Ritsuko breathed as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. "What the hell happened?"

Within her mind the scarab chattered back in its incomprehensible language, possibly trying to answer her but unable to communicate anything to its new host.

_I have gone insane,_ Ritsuko thought, suddenly feeling rather numb._ I have finally cracked under the stress of my life and have gone completely and totally crazy. And sooner or later, men in white coats will come and take me to a nice, calm padded cell. That is the only logical explanation for this._

This idea actually comforted her, because it would mean that she wasn't actually wearing a suit of mysterious black-and-blue armor, which had grown from a mysterious (and probably living) item she'd just happened to have picked up by the side of the road. In fact, the idea was so comforting that Ritsuko would have felt relieved if the armor had decided to change into a talking pink elephant, because then she would have known she was crazy.

Of course, crazy wasn't exactly _good_, but at least it was, well, normal. Understandable. Something others had gone through. And, paradoxically, sane.

However, no pink elephant appeared to confirm her insanity, nor any green cats, or even a purple dog. Instead, she was apparently stuck with one big blue scarab that was stuck to her back, and her certainty that she was insane began to erode, filling her with anxiety.

"This can't actually be happening, can it?" she wondered aloud, again focusing on her mirror as she reached up to touch her face.

She didn't achieve this end, of course, since her entire body was covered by the armor she wore. Ritsuko wondered if madness would so completely fool all her senses that she would feel the delusions as well as see them.

Having always held nothing but disdain for the "soft sciences," Ritsuko Akagi had never studied psychology, and so she had very little knowledge of madness to work with. However, the longer she remained in the armor, the less she felt like she was crazy.

_Crazy people don't think they're crazy,_ Ritsuko thought, feeling a bizarre sort of hope. Then she realized she had thought she was crazy just a moment ago.

The scarab chattered at her again.

"Ugh, shut up already!" she groaned, rubbing her forehead. "If I'm not crazy yet, I will be if you don't stop that."

To her surprise, the voice in her mind immediately fell silent.

_Can crazy people control their delusions?_ Ritsuko wondered, and then shook her head.

Regardless of what was really happening to her, there was one thing that was very clear to her at the moment. Her record of never taking a day off from work wasn't going to survive _this_.

Going to her phone, she picked it and quickly dialed a number. The person on the other end of the line picked up after two rings.

"NERV Central Commander Center," came the sleepy sounding voice of one of the techs who worked the graveyard shift.

"This is Dr. Akagi," she said. "I'm not coming in today. I've got a… a bad bug. A very bad bug." She added a fake cough for effect.

"Got it," the tech yawned. "I'll make sure the Commander knows."

"Thank you," Ritsuko said. "Also, please make sure you tell Maya, uh, Lieutenant Ibuki, to continue on as normal without me."

_Maya might have to work without me permanently soon, so she might as well start now!_ Ritsuko thought.

"Understood, ma'am," the tech said.

"Thanks again," Ritsuko said. "Bye."

She hung up the phone and then cursed. Calling in sick had been a rather rational thing to do; it was one more piece of evidence for the hypothesis that she was sane and that this was really happening to her.

"Okay, focus here, Akagi," she told herself, trying to calm her whirling thoughts.

Ever the logical mind, Ritsuko decided to work on the assumption that she wasn't insane. Not that she wanted to believe that any more than she had a few minutes ago, but assuming that she was insane would be like assuming that the future held only the best case scenario. It might be pleasant enough to tell yourself, but if you were wrong, it would hurt later.

"So, if I am actually wearing armor that grew out a crazy bug thing… then what? What am I supposed to do about it?" she wondered aloud.

_You're a scientist,_ Ritsuko, a voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like her mother answered. _So you observe, experiment, analyze, and draw conclusions._

That was at least as good an idea as any other she was likely to come up with, so Ritsuko decided to get right to work.

Or at least, she would have if not for her stomach suddenly releasing a loud growl, the hunger she had completely failed to notice making its presence known.

_Well, my mouth's uncovered, so I guess I can still eat,_ Ritsuko thought, actually comforted by the prospect of something as normal as breakfast. _No reason to try and figure this out on an empty stomach, I guess._

Ritsuko trudged over to her kitchen, closing the blinds on all her windows as she went, just in case. She felt rather silly, puttering around the kitchen in the armor she was wearing, like a cosplayer waiting at a bus stop or some other area where they were incredibly out of place.

Not that it stopped her for cooking for herself, though "cooking" was a rather generous term for what she did, which was to prepare some instant food.

Ritsuko's culinary skills were…not exactly great, but she wasn't the walking disaster in the kitchen that Misato was. However, she very rarely had time to cook these days, thanks to her job, and often found herself living off whatever she could get the vending machines at the base to cough up.

_Which might have something to do with the way that certain parts of me that were tight and firm just a few years ago have started sagging,_ she thought with a grimace, though with a weird little bit of pleasure at thinking about something mundane mixed in.

If she didn't look at herself while she ate her ramen noodles, she could almost forget about the armor and the scarab for a little while. Almost.

Eventually, she finished her rather pathetic breakfast, tossing away the empty plastic cup the noodles had come with. It happened to occur to her then that she didn't have to go to the bathroom, despite not having gone since yesterday.

_Weird,_ she thought, _but I guess I shouldn't be questioning small favors._

Reluctant to actually turn her mind back to the scarab and the armor she was now trapped in, Ritsuko reached into a drawer and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a new lighter. Pulling out a single cigarette, she put it to her lips…

…only to have thin bolts of blue energy burst forth from her fingertips and reduce the tar stick to ash before she'd even had a chance to bring the lighter close to it.

This was followed by some furious chattering from the scarab inside her head.

"Fine!" she exclaimed as she spat the ruined cigarette out into her kitchen garbage bin. "I'll go and start. Ugh, nice to know karma's still out to get me."

Trudging back to her bedroom, Ritsuko strategically placed a couple of mirrors so she could get a good look at her own back. So far as she could tell, the scarab looked about the same as it had when she'd first found it, except that it was much larger now, obviously.

That included the damage it had had when she'd discovered it. Part of the thing's exterior was still gone, exposing circuitry that now crackled with strange blue energy. The conclusion was obvious: it was broken.

_But what is it?_ She wondered in frustration. _And why would something like it just be laying around in the middle of nowhere?_

She took a deep breath. "Focus," she commanded herself in a level voice.

Forcing herself not to lose it now after having remained more or less together for a while, Ritsuko searched through her closet until she managed to find a barely used digital camera. Moving mechanically, and trying to think of this as just another experiment, Ritsuko took a number of pictures of the scarab for later reference.

Unfortunately, after this task was completed, she didn't quite know what to do. Oh, there were any number of tests she had the knowledge to run, but all the necessary equipment was at headquarters, and she couldn't very well go there in her condition.

_You've observed, you've analyzed to the best of your ability, and you lack the equipment to run tests,_ that voice that sounded strangely like her mother spoke up again. _That leaves…?_

"Experimentation," Ritsuko answered aloud, wracking her brain as she tried to figure out just how to do that.

_When I told it to shut up, earlier, it did,_ she thought. _Is it possible that thing obeys my commands?_

"I don't want to wear this armor anymore," she said tentatively.

The armor remained stubbornly in place, but the scarab did chatter at her again.

"Damn it!" she yelled, finally starting to really lose it. "I don't want this! I don't want to be some damn freak! I want this god damned armor gone, _and I want it gone yesterday!_"

Suddenly, pain _erupted_ all over her entire body, and Ritsuko let out a cry and fell to her knees. She was going to die. She had pissed off the damn bug, and it was going to kill her for it. This was it, an undignified and bizarre end to a pathetic life.

Then she noticed that the armor appeared to be dissolving, thin trails of steam rising up from where it was disappearing. The scarab was granting her request after all.

In seconds—the longest seconds she'd ever endured in her entire life—the armor had completely vanished and the scarab had shrunken back to the size it was when she found it.

She tried to grab it, to pull it off of her, but it was situated right between her shoulder blades, out of her reach. Ritsuko could do nothing but watch, with the aid of the mirrors, as the blue scarab crawled back inside via a slit in her back which sealed itself immediately once the thing had disappeared within her body.

The faux blonde was left kneeling there on the floor, naked and with her body covered in sweat.

"Well," she panted out, "the results of this experiment clearly support the hypothesis that I have some level of control."

With that, she threw her head back and laughed like a banshee for several moments, then allowed herself to collapse to the floor, where she lay in an exhausted heap for a long time.

* * *

Eventually, Ritsuko found the energy to get up. She showered, and then dressed. She knew she should have experimented further after that, seeing what she could make the scarab do and what commands it would refuse, but she simply didn't have the will for it. Every time the scarab chattered in her mind, she made a note of it, but other than that, the blonde took her scientist's hat off for the rest of the day.

For once, she allowed herself to relax, spending most of that day parked in front of her TV or reading a book. It was the first time she'd let herself take a full day off from work in years, and even despite the knowledge that she had something very alien inside of her, she could feel herself unwinding somewhat.

Obviously, she needed a vacation. What was equally obvious was that she wouldn't be getting one in the foreseeable future.

The scarab only felt the need to talk to her a few times that day, and the armor didn't made a reappearance. It gave Ritsuko the hope that perhaps she had the situation under control, and that she wouldn't find herself strapped to her own examination table in the near future.

Part of her felt, part of her _knew_, that she couldn't really hope to predict the scarab's behavior just because it was quiet for one day in which she never left her home. Deep down, she realized that she was really just burying her head in the sand, but that was what she'd been doing about the problems in her life before the scarab had invaded it, so why should anything be different now?

_Enough being depressed,_ she told herself eventually. _This might be the last day off you ever enjoy as a free woman. Enjoy it while it lasts._

While this thought was rather depressing in itself, Ritsuko nevertheless did try to shake off the gloom that came from thinking about her life and herself too much. Realizing that it was time for dinner, she happily tried to shift her thoughts entirely toward food.

"Might as well be lazy for all of today and order out," she decided, going over to her phone book. "Chinese sounds good…"

Twenty minutes later, the delivery guy was knocking on her door. Ritsuko grabbed the money she'd already taken out to pay him and opened up the door.

"You Ritsuko Akagi?" the delivery man asked without preamble the moment he saw her.

"Yes," she replied. "How much?"

"Fifteen hundred yen," he replied.

Ritsuko handed him the money, and he gave her the brown bag of food, then began to count out the bills. She was about to put the food aside, but she abruptly stopped and stared at the man.

He must have felt her intent gaze upon him, because he looked up after a few seconds and said, "Something I can help you with, lady?"

"You have cancer," Ritsuko said, not having any idea _how_ she knew this, but being completely sure that she was right all the same.

"What?" he asked, frowning.

"Pancreatic," she elaborated, her mouth seeming to work almost of its own accord. "It's still in the very early stages, though. If you get treatment soon, you should be just fine. Go to your doctor and tell him. Make them do a biopsy, perform exploratory surgery, whatever it takes to confirm that it's there. Because you will die if you ignore this."

The delivery man looked at her for a few seconds, then, without saying a word, he slowly backed away from her, walking backwards for the first few steps so as not to present his back to her. After he finally did turn, he practically ran back to his car.

Ritsuko ran a hand through her hair as she watched him drive away at speed. "How did I know he had cancer?" she asked herself.

Clearly, there was even more to the scarab than hearing insect sounds and weird armor appearing on her body.

* * *

The next day, Ritsuko went into work. If she'd had any choice in the matter, she would have taken at least a week off to try and figure out the scarab and become more confident of her ability to keep it under control, but she simply couldn't be absent from NERV that long.

The scarab chattered at her as her train descended into the Geofront, but otherwise it didn't do anything, much to her relief.

"Good morning, sempai," Maya greeted her as she arrived.

"Morning, Maya," Ritsuko said. "Do you happen to know where the Commander is?"

"Out of the city talking to some bureaucrat or another," Maya said with a wave of the hand, having little care for politicking, as usual. "And the Vice Commander's downtown meeting with the city council again."

"I see," Ritsuko said, holding back a smile at this news.

"How are you by the way?" Maya asked. "I know you usually hate to call in sick."

"I'm feeling much better," Ritsuko said. "Thanks for worrying, Maya. I hope my absence didn't cause too much work to be dumped on you."

"Oh, no, it's fine," Maya said. "Nothing out of the ordinary happened yesterday, so I had everything under control."

Ritsuko gave her assistant a smile. "I'm glad to hear that, because I need you to hang onto the reins for a little longer," she said. "I have a… side experiment I need to run."

"Oh, all right," Maya said, obviously rather surprised but as willing to oblige as ever. "Would you like some help with that experiment, sempai? I'm sure that Lieutenant Yoshimora can hold down the fort for a few hours."

Knowing Maya as she did, Ritsuko had expected this offer and had a lie ready. "Unfortunately, this is classified beyond your security clearance, Maya," she said. "That's why I have to do this personally."

Maya's features twisted in a way that wasn't _quite_ a grimace. She knew enough about the secrets of NERV to know that they generally weren't exactly pretty. "I see," she said. "In that case, good luck with whatever it is."

"Thank you, Maya," Ritsuko said, walking off.

Leaving the laboratories and facilities commonly used by Technical Division One, Ritsuko headed down to an elevator that only a handful of people could utilize.

Not a lot of people could run experiments in NERV without the Commanders finding out about it, and even fewer could do so in Terminal Dogma. Even Ritsuko would have been hard pressed to pull that off, if either of them were on the base. However, with them both gone, Terminal Dogma was the safest place for her to continue investigating the scarab.

She soon reached a combination lab and medical facility, which had seen extensive use years ago, during the creation and early childhood of the First Child. However, since then, the place had been largely neglected, except when Rei was in need of a checkup or something. It was perfect for Ritsuko's rather unique needs that day.

"Guess I should start with something simple and work my way up," Ritsuko mused aloud, moving over to the X-ray machine.

Taking X-rays of herself with no one to work the machine for her was a chore, even with the modern equipment she had at her disposal. However, she eventually managed to do it, and soon after that, she had an X-ray image of her back up to one of the room's light boxes.

"Okay," she said as examined it, "this is bizarre."

She had expected to see a large, bug shape on the X-ray, but there was no sign of the scarab on it. There wasn't even the faintest shadow; for all anyone would be able to tell, it was the X-ray of completely normal person who didn't have some kind of weird insect-thing hiding inside of her.

"How did you _do_ that?" she wondered aloud.

As though it had realized it was being asked a question, the scarab chattered something. Ritsuko sighed.

"On to the other tests then," she said.

She moved onto the MRI machine, then drew a vial of blood from herself and ran tests on that. However, the results were the same: neither test revealed even a trace of anything being unusual about her physiology, let alone revealing the scarab she knew was in her back.

"Great," she grumbled as she meticulously began to do away with all the evidence that she had used the lab that day.

There were more tests that she could run, but she doubted that they would turn anything up. Besides, she had already been down in Terminal Dogma for hours, and it was wiser not to push it.

_I guess it's good in a way,_ Ritsuko thought as she rode the elevator back up to Terminal Dogma. _If I can't find anything even though I know it's there, then it's unlikely anyone else will discover the scarab unless the armor reappears at a bad time. Still, I would have liked to have gotten more data on this thing._

The obvious course of action was to run tests while she had the armor on. However, Ritsuko was in absolutely no hurry to call the armor back. It scared her, and she wasn't certain that she could dismiss it again.

The elevator pinged as it arrived at Central Dogma. Ritsuko stepped out and began to head back to the Tech Division One labs, however, it wasn't long before she encountered someone she'd rather not meet.

"Dr. Akagi," Gendo said, turning a corner and spotting her, apparently having returned from his trip to wherever.

Ritsuko swallowed as she realized how close she'd come to disaster. This wasn't a good place for him to find her, since it was obvious she'd just left Terminal Dogma, but if he'd caught her in the hidden laboratory used solely to deal with Rei, he would no doubt have thrown a number of very hard questions her way.

"Good afternoon, Commander," she replied.

"What were you doing down in Terminal Dogma?" Gendo asked, walking over to her.

Ritsuko barely heard him, because an explosion of chattering erupted in her brain as the bearded man drew near to her. She wasn't sure, but to her, the scarab actually sounded… angry.

**_Bad!_** It exclaimed in the midst of its insect-like noises.

_My god, is this thing learning Japanese from hearing me and others speak it?_ She wondered.

"Dr. Akagi, I asked you a question," Gendo said. "What were you doing down in Terminal Dogma?"

"I was just doing some work on the Dummy System," Ritsuko said, unable to keep herself from lowering her gaze like a contrite child.

It was fortunate she did so, because it allowed her to see that the armor had covered her hands and was working its way up her wrists. Her eyes widening, she jammed both hands into the large pockets of her lab coat.

_Not now, damn you! You'll doom us both!_ She thought vehemently.

**_Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad! BAD!!!_** The scarab replied.

_NOT NOW!_ She mentally screamed back at it.

It hesitated, then Ritsuko felt pain blooming all over her hands. Her jaw clenched as she forced herself not to scream, then the bits of the armor were gone.

"Where were you yesterday?" Gendo asked.

"I was sick, sir," she replied carefully.

"You once came in when you had the flu," Gendo replied, narrowing his eyes. "You made half of Technical Division One ill."

"I was really sick, sir," Ritsuko said lamely.

"And yet you're fine today?" Gendo asked, eye boring into her.

"It was just a twenty-four hour bug," Ritsuko replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Commander, I really do need to get to work. Things are backed up, you know."

She walked past him and down the hall, but he stopped her with but a word.

"Doctor."

"Yes, sir?" she asked, turning back to him and trying to hide her anxiety.

"Don't get sick again," Gendo said.

"Yes, sir."

* * *

The rest of that day and the next passed without incident, save for the scarab making a few noises that Ritsuko and Ritsuko alone could hear. She almost forgot about it as the regular systems check of the MAGI supercomputer approached.

"You've gotten pretty fast at this, Maya," Ritsuko commented as she watched data scroll by on her screen.

The third tier of the command center was in a state of organized chaos, with notes scattered everywhere and even certain bits of hardware lying around in various states of assembly or disassembly. Just looking at it all made Ritsuko feel rather tired; there had once been a time when she had actually enjoyed conducting such a frenetic level of activity, but those days were behind her.

Nevertheless, she was still Ritsuko Akagi, which meant she'd get the job on time no matter how insane it was.

"I had to get fast at this, otherwise I would just slow you down most of the time," Maya replied in good humor.

"Hmm," Ritsuko said, studying the stream of data. "It would be faster if you reset the addition value. Here, let me do it."

Momentarily abandoning what she'd been doing, Ritsuko reached over to her terminal and began to type. The data immediately began to rush across the screen, too quickly to be read.

"Wow," Maya said, eyes widening. "I still have a long way to go before I catch up to you."

"Hello!" a loud voice suddenly called from the doorway.

Ritsuko didn't bother to spare Misato a glance. Honestly, the purple haired woman was great to go club hopping with, but as a co-worker…well, Ritsuko could do without Misato seeking her out whenever the woman grew too bored with her paperwork to continue doing it.

"Hi, Misato," Ritsuko replied.

"So, will the MAGI be ready for today's experiment?" Misato asked.

"Yes," Ritsuko replied. "We're almost done here."

She heard Misato pick something up. Knowing what it had to be, the scientist said, "That coffee's cold."

Apparently her warning came too late, because the sound of Misato coughing and gagging in disgust followed soon after. However, the Operations Director quickly rebounded.

"You're amazing, Ritsuko," she said. "Three different jobs to do and you still finish them all ahead of schedule."

Misato approached Ritsuko as she said this, and the scarab released a burst of chattering. It was free of Japanese words, which the scarab was so far picking up at a slow pace, so Ritsuko couldn't even hazard a guess at what it was trying to say. She ignored it, having grown almost accustomed to the thing and the weird noises she heard with her brain rather than with her ears.

"It's really nothing, Misato," Ritsuko said, as she typed in the command to restore the MAGI to normal mode. "There, everything checks out just fine. Take five, people, but report to the Pribnow box control room on time for the experiment." She told her underlings.

The scientist finally turned her chair around to look at Misato. "I'm going to freshen up before the experiment begins," Ritsuko told her. "I'll meet you by the Pribnow box."

"Sure," Misato said.

Getting up, Ritsuko left the command center and made her way to the women's lavatory, where she quickly did her business, then splashed some cold water on her face, feeling exhausted.

"Well, mother's fine," she said to her reflection.

It was funny, she mused as she stood there. She had never cared that much about the MAGI when her mother was alive; indeed, Ritsuko hadn't even liked them much. They were the great achievement of Naoko Akagi, the things that would keep Ritsuko in her mother's shadow forever unless she managed to create something _really_ impressive.

Yet these days she felt compelled to make sure the shadows of her mother that they represented remain intact and in good working order, even if Ritsuko had often had a love/hate relationship with the woman.

"Maybe I'm just getting old," she muttered.

With a sigh, Ritsuko wiped the water from her face, then left the restroom to face the rest of her day.

* * *

It took some doing to get the Children to climb into the simulation plugs, mostly because it required them to walk across a long hallway while completely naked. Asuka had protested especially vigorously.

Despite how obnoxious Ritsuko often found the Second Child to be, she envied the redhead on a certain level. Unlike Ritsuko, Asuka didn't realize that she was no more than a component in the Commander's great and terrible machine, and that she _would_ be forced to perform her purpose until she broke, regardless of what she had to say about it. Ritsuko wouldn't have minded such blissful ignorance.

"All the pilots are ready for entry," Sakura reported from the Pribnow box's control room, bringing up an image from heat monitors in the plug, showing the forms of the three Children sitting in their command chairs.

"Thank goodness," Ritsuko sighed. "Insert the simulation plugs and commence data recording."

"Yes, ma'am," Maya said, typing in the appropriate commands.

Inside the Pribnow box, the three plugs smoothly entered the headless Evangelion torsos.

"Connect system to the dummy bodies," Ritsuko ordered.

"Hai," Maya said, "Simulation program has handed over control to the MAGI."

Standing off to the side a bit, Misato looked at the main screen, where data was streaming by far too quickly for a mere human to hope to be able to read.

"Amazing," the Ops Director commented.

Ritsuko gave Misato a small nod before she continued overseeing the experiment. "How does it feel?" she asked the pilots.

"Different," was Rei's succinct response.

"Yeah, it's hard to describe," Shinji agreed. "It's definitely not the same as piloting a real EVA."

"The right arm feel clear, but everything else is fuzzy," Asuka added.

Ritsuko had the pilots do or attempt to do various things with their simulation bodies before she declared herself satisfied, and everyone sat back for another long and boring test. Despite the change in venue, it looked very much like there would be little difference between this experiment and the average harmonics test.

Appearances, of course, could be deceiving.

* * *

"It looks like corrosion on the 87th protein wall," Aoba said as Vice Commander Fuyutski looked over his shoulder, gazing at his screen. "See, if I zoom in here, you can see a color change has taken place."

Fuyutski nodded as he observed the brownish stain on the wall. "That area was updated only recently," he commented.

"Yes, sir," Aoba agreed, "but construction was done very hastily, and as a result some air bubbles got in."

"It was right after the Third Angel arrived that that was built," Makoto added. "Everyone was so exhausted with the avalanche of work that came after that, I'm not surprised things were done sloppily around here."

"Well, have it fixed by Tuesday or Ikari will chew my ass off," Fuyutski said.

"Yes, sir."

* * *

Back in the Pribnow box control room, the ominous sound of slowly buckling metal filled the ears of the personnel there. The scarab chattered, and Ritsuko looked around worriedly.

"Is there another water leak?" she asked, exasperation tinting her voice.

"No," Maya answered after making a brief call to the command center. "There's corrosion in the 87th protein wall."

"Will it interrupt this test?" Ritsuko asked.

"Not at present, no," Maya answered.

"Good," Ritsuko said. "Let's proceed, then. Ikari will chew my ass off if I don't get this data on schedule."

Satisfied that everything was fine, at least for the moment, Ritsuko turned back to the main screen.

Just before klaxons and warning messages began blaring everywhere.

"What's happening?!" the blond scientist demanded.

"A contamination alert has gone off for Sigma Unit!" Maya announced, her voice betraying more than a hint of fear.

The Pribnow box was inside Sigma Unit, after all.

"The 87th protein wall has degraded," another technician announced. "Temperature is increasing rapidly."

"There's a problem in the number six pipeline," Maya added. "The corroded area's expanding rapidly!"

"Abort the experiment!" Ritsuko barked. "Disconnect the number six pipeline!"

"Hai!" Maya replied at once, practically punching the appropriate buttons.

They could hear the heavy machinery around them working to isolate the contaminated area. Everyone looked anxiously at Maya, wanting to know whether it had worked.

"Contamination is still spreading!" Maya exclaimed. "It's moving from wall to wall!"

"Ready the polysomes," Ritsuko commanded. "Set the lasers at maximum. Fire as soon as the contaminant reaches here."

"Hai."

Several small doors inside the Pribnow opened, allowed robots that looked almost like miniature VTOLs to enter. The swarm of machines swam over to where the corrosion was likely to first appear and waited, looking as predatory as a faceless robot possibly could.

Then there was nothing to do but wait.

"It's coming," Maya said as she anxiously stared at her screen.

A scream suddenly split the tense silence in the control room.

"Rei," Ritsuko breathed.

"The First Child's simulation body is moving by itself!" Maya exclaimed.

"Impossible!" Ritsuko said.

But, impossible or not, it was happening. Rei's dummy body, which was bolted to the wall like all the others, looked like it was trying to pull itself free. Fortunately, the thick bolts holding it had been drilled into several of the very vertebrae of the body, and it failed to liberate itself from its restraints. Giving up, it lifted one arm and reached out toward the control room.

Maya smashed the thin layer of glass in front of a large switch marked "forced shutdown" and pulled it. Small but powerful explosive charges located in the dummy body's elbow went off, blowing the headless beast's forearm off and stopping its assault before it could begin.

"What about Rei?" Misato asked.

"She's alive," Maya replied.

"Eject all the plugs!" Ritsuko commanded. "Fire the lasers! Now!"

"Hai!"

A series of small rockets in each plug flared, sending the metal containers soaring out of the dummy bodies and upwards toward the ceiling. A large door opened up to allow them to escape and the plugs had soon journeyed out of the base, heading to the safety of the Geofront floor.

Beams of deadly red light shot out from the weapon barrels of the polysomes, striking the rogue simulation body. For a few seconds, no one had any idea what was happening as the water bubbled furiously and hid any effect the lasers might be having.

Then the bubbles cleared up just enough for Misato to spot a cluster of hexagonal shields of light protecting the dummy body from the lasers.

"Impossible! It's an AT field!" she exclaimed, just as some red, luminescent substance began to grow all over the dummy bodies like an out of control fungus.

"The pattern's blue! It's an Angel!" Maya said grimly.

"We have to isolate the box!" Misato announced. "All personnel, evacuate!"

The various technicians in the room didn't need to be told twice and quickly got up from their chairs and fled toward the exit. Ritsuko was another matter, however. The blonde just stared darkly at the Angel, even as the glass that separated the control room from the Pribnow box began to crack, tiny jets of water starting to spurt in.

"Ritsuko!" Misato said, grabbing her arm. "Let's _go!_"

Ritsuko didn't say anything, but she did begin running, and the two just managed to escape and shut the door behind them just before the window shattered and allowed a tidal wave of water to pour into the control room.

* * *

Over an hour and a failed attempt to kill the Eleventh Angel with ozone later, the senior staff of NERV stood around a table in the command center, observing images and readouts on the Angel on the monitor that was part of the tabletop.

Any way one looked at it, their situation was grim. Not only had the Angel evolved to be able to thrive off of what they'd tried to kill it with, but it had transformed itself into what was essentially a living computer that could hack and code faster than any human could ever hope to. The Angel had immediately used its incredible new abilities to invade the MAGI. Melchior had already been completely taken over. The Angel had then moved onto Balthasar, but some quick thinking on Ritsuko's part had managed to buy NERV some time.

And as if all of that wasn't bad enough, the Angel had already tried to initiate the base's self-destruct sequence, right after it reprogrammed the first MAGI unit. Casper and Balthasar had overridden Melchior, but if the Angel gained complete control of the triumvirate of supercomputers, it was certain that they were all doomed.

Misato had wanted to kill the parasitic Angel by destroying its host, namely the MAGI, but Ritsuko had objected, claiming she could reprogram the Angel itself to make it evolve toward self-destruction.

It was a risky move, Ritsuko knew, but she couldn't let the MAGI be destroyed, for a wide variety of reasons that encompassed everything from pride to stubbornness to her lingering affection for the woman.

So now they were lifting Casper, the only uncorrupted member of the MAGI, out of the floor so they could do some quick and dirty reprogramming.

Ritsuko opened up a panel on the side of the computer, revealing a tunnel just large enough for an adult to crawl through. Misato, who was right behind her, frowned as she saw sticky notes without number affixed to the guts of the machine.

"What're those?" she asked.

"Notes made by the developer," Ritsuko replied, a small smile appearing on her face.

"Incredible!" Maya exclaimed. "These are the secret codes and backdoors to the MAGI! Ma'am, am I even authorized to see these?"

"Right now, you are," Ritsuko replied, plucking off one of the pieces of paper and examining it. "Thanks, Mom. With these, we should have a much better shot at beating this Angel."

Ritsuko and Misato crawled inside, leaving Maya waiting outside with her laptop in hand.

Nearly the moment the scientist was inside the computer, the scarab freaked.

**_Bad! Bad! Danger!_** It shrieked.

_You learned a new word,_ Ritsuko thought back at it. _Congratulations. Now shut up. I know there's an Angel, and I'm going to need all my concentration to deal with it._

**_No! Danger! Danger!_**

_Wonderful,_ Ritsuko thought, this time to herself. _I do not need this._

Doing her best to ignore the scarab's incessant warnings, Ritsuko worked in concert with Misato to partially dismantle the MAGI, removing unnecessary and backup hardware in order to get at the more crucial components beneath. Mechanical entrails were soon scattered all over the floor outside the supercomputer's casing.

It was hard work, and the time limit they were dealing with didn't make it any easier. However, it was also relatively simple work, which was good, because Ritsuko had little trouble mustering the concentration for it, even with the scarab's wailing.

What she'd do once they got to the actual reprogramming, Ritsuko wasn't quite sure, but she simply didn't have the time to dwell on that problem until she came to it.

"Kind of reminds you of our college days, huh?" Misato asked.

_Not really,_ Ritsuko thought.

"Power saw, please," she said.

Misato handed it to her. Ritsuko turned it on and began cutting into the metal casing that covered the cloned brain which was the core of Casper. The noise effectively stifled any further conversation.

Having cut a diamond shaped hole in the brain case, Ritsuko carefully inserted long, thin needles that were part of an I/O system created just for the MAGI into the gray matter of the computer's brain. With this task done, she grabbed her laptop and began to type.

_**Danger! Danger!**_

_Will you kindly shut the hell up?!_ Ritsuko thought at the scarab. The mysterious object hidden in her back ignored this just like it had before.

She did her best to tune it out, truly she did, but even Ritsuko Akagi had trouble concentrating with something shouting at her nonstop. She was working too slowly, and she knew it, but there was nothing she could do in order to pick up the pace.

Alarm klaxons suddenly started to blare all over again, and Ritsuko had to refrain from cursing out loud. She was nowhere near ready yet, thanks to that stupid scarab.

"It's taken over Balthasar!" she heard Makoto shout.

"Artificial intelligence has proposed self-destruction," announced the calm, digitized voice of the MAGI themselves. "Self destruction will commence in thirty seconds if all three MAGI units unanimously approve."

"The Angel's invading Casper!" Aoba called.

"Twenty seconds until self-destruct," the MAGI announced.

"Casper will be taken over in eighteen seconds!" Aoba added.

_Damn it!_ Ritsuko thought, her fingers blurring over her keyboard, even though she knew it was a futile effort. She just didn't have the time to finish before everyone in the base was blown sky high. _What do I_ do_?!_

Suddenly, a thought that was not hers entered her mind, completely free of the barrier created by dissimilar languages. It was a shock, and it nearly bowled the faux blonde over, causing her to pause from her work and sit there, stock still, with her fingers hovering over her keyboard. For once, however the scarab managed to communicate exactly what it wanted to, though Ritsuko had a sneaking suspicion that the effort had left the thing winded.

"Ritsuko?" Misato asked, noticing how her friend had abruptly halted what she was doing.

"I need board number thirty-one!" Ritsuko barked. "Go! Hurry!"

"Right!" Misato said, quickly turning and scurrying out of the supercomputer.

Misato wasn't likely to be back any time within the next twenty seconds, seeing as how there were only thirty computer boards. This suited Ritsuko just fine; she'd given Misato that task just to be rid of her for a while.

_You'd better know what you're doing,_ Ritsuko thought to the scarab, as the armor began to form over her right hand.

When she'd first woken up to find that the scarab had attached itself to her, the armor's fingers had each ended in a small, simple emitter that glowed with blue light. It was really just a hole in each fingertip.

Now, however, a long, thin needle formed at the end of each of the fingers.

She pulled out the special I/O system from the cloned brain that was the core of Casper and positioned the needles of her fingertips over the appropriate holes in the gray matter.

_God, I hope this doesn't leave me a vegetable,_ Ritsuko thought.

She plunged the needles into the brain, and suddenly—

* * *

—She wasn't in NERV any longer. Instead, she was flying through outer space, or at least, she thought it was outer space at first. The endless blackness was right, but the points of light she'd taken to be stars weren't stars at all.

They were glowing ones and zeroes, and there were billions upon billions of them.

Suddenly, she spotted a great green and red triangle ahead of her, and it was rapidly growing larger as she approached it. Ritsuko soon realized that it was a great "island" in the ocean of blackness, a flat planetoid that was covered in grass and red liquid.

Gravity abruptly seemed to shift as she got closer to the triangle; where before she had been flying forward, now she was falling _down_.

"Ahhh!" she cried, flailing about wildly.

She crashed onto the grassy ground moments later, finding that the impact had been painful but not lethal, as she'd expected. She gingerly got to her feet, realizing that she was wearing the armor again as she did so.

"My god," she whispered, looking at the sky and the swirling bits of glowing binary code. "Am I inside the MAGI?"

Almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized how absurd this was. She wasn't really _inside_ the MAGI; somehow the scarab was allowing her to interface with it directly. The place she was in now was probably just how her brain was interpreting the data.

"Or something," she muttered, looking around.

"Well, hello, Ritsuko."

Ritsuko let out a small cry and jumped, then whirled around to find—

"Mother?!"

A woman who looked exactly like Naoko Akagi stood before her, wearing a slinky black cocktail dress. She was have looked quite sexy if not for the glowing lesions that covered most of her skin that Ritsuko could see.

"No. I'm Casper. Honestly, I thought you were supposed to be smarter than that, Ritsuko."

Ritsuko scowled. "Oh, sorry, I guess I'm just sort of reeling from being the first human ever to directly interface my brain with a computer. Silly me," she said, sarcasm dripping from every word.

She had never liked this aspect of her mother much, and Ritsuko had always suspected that this part of Naoko had had some level of contempt for her, because of how "boy shy" she had been. The look of disdain that Casper was giving her didn't exactly make her reconsider this hypothesis.

"Yes, well, since you're here, I assume you came to help fight off that thing," Casper said, gesturing into the distance.

Ritsuko looked over her shoulder to see a giant standing knee deep in the red sea that composed over two thirds of the strange island in the nothingness. It looked like a giant made entirely of red liquid, but it glowed, the same way most people imagined that nuclear waste glowed. Great robotic hands graced the end of either arm, and it wore boots of shining metal that Ritsuko could see through the red LCL it stood in. On top of each of the thing's shoulders stood another Naoko doppelganger. One wore a lab coat, while the other was dressed like a 50's housewife (apron and everything), which was ironic, since Naoko had never actually dressed like that in her life.

As she was watching, the monster released an inarticulate roar and lifted one of its feet out of the LCL, then brought it stomping down on what little of the grassy land was left. The ground the beast had stepped upon immediately began to sink, soon becoming subsumed by the sea of LCL.

The whole picture really should have been more absurd than anything else, but somehow, Ritsuko found herself utterly _terrified_ by the sight.

It _might_ have had something to do with the fact that the Eleventh Angel's avatar was at least fifteen stories tall, Ritsuko decided.

"How do we fight that?!" she sputtered.

"Simple," Casper replied. "By connecting your brain to the MAGI network, you seem to have increased our capabilities. So—"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Ritsuko said, holding up her hands. "The MAGI—you—are using my brain's processing power to give yourself a boost?"

"Yes," Casper answered simply. "By the way, you might want to disconnect immediately if we lose this, because the Angel might try to reprogram _you_ next."

"Wonderful," Ritsuko groaned. "So what's the plan?"

"As I was saying, with you connected, I can extrapolate the rest of the self-destruct program you were writing to destroy the Angel," Casper said. "Unfortunately, I don't have enough time, so you have to slow the Angel down. Distract it for a few seconds."

"You want me to distract_ that_?" Ritsuko asked incredulously, pointing at the Angel.

"Unless you have a better idea," Casper replied, glowering.

"I guess I don't," Ritsuko said with a grimace. "Fine, I'll do my best. But are you sure you can hold out long enough to make this work? You don't look so hot."

"I'll keep fighting it so long as the Angel doesn't overwrite me completely," Casper replied. "I'm stubborn like that. Now go!"

"This is completely insane," Ritsuko said, even as she began to run toward the shoreline. "Hey! Long, tall and ugly! Down here! You want a piece of me?"

It apparently did not, because the Angel ignored her, and brought one of its size five hundred boots crashing down onto part of the rapidly diminishing bit of land, causing it to break off from the rest and dissolve into the LCL. With a growl of frustration, Ritsuko reached down and soon found a rock lying among the grass. Not bother to wonder at which program it might represent, she hefted it, and then hurled it at the Angel with all of her might.

The rock impacted solidly against one the beast's legs, creating a splash as it entered the being of living liquid. Moments later, the rock seemed to dissolve completely. Ritsuko didn't even know if she'd hurt it.

However, it soon became apparent that she had managed to annoy it. Both Melchior and Balthasar leapt off the Angel's shoulders, and went flying through the air at her. Ritsuko was so surprised by this that she didn't move out of the way in time, and the possessed parts of the MAGI crashed into her, knocking her into the ground.

"Get off me!" Ritsuko yelled, as he wrestled with the two shadows of her mother.

"You have to distract the Angel itself, Ritsuko!" Casper called. "Not just the other parts of the MAGI!"

"God, I'd forgotten how demanding my mother could be," Ritsuko grumbled, even as she continued to struggle ferociously.

Balthasar landed a solid punch against her solar plexus, and Ritsuko saw stars, momentarily loosing her focus. Melchior grabbed hold of Ritsuko's head with both hands, and for a moment, the scientist thought that the supercomputer was going to snap her neck.

Then Ritsuko felt something strange, something that was terrifyingly not-her, something more alien than the scarab could ever be. And that something was invading her very being.

"_No!_" she shrieked as she realized that Angel was invading her mind now as well.

The blonde woman redoubled her efforts to escape the two supercomputers' grip, but their hold on her was too strong.

"Oh, for crying out loud…" she heard Casper say.

Then she heard one of the last things she might have expected. The sound of dogs barking reached her ears and began to draw closer.

Ritsuko turned her head and saw that two enormous canines of no specific breed were running toward the group, and they both looked mean and hungry.

Balthasar and Melchior didn't fail to notice the feral looking mutts approaching. The two both reluctantly released Ritsuko and began to wrestle with the dogs. It was a much more even fight than it would have been had it occurred in real life rather than virtual reality.

Ritsuko struggled to her feet while the rogue supercomputers were distracted and looked down at her hand. The same legions that had infected all three MAGI units were now on her, having actually grown on the surface of her armor, and she could feel them spreading, albeit at a much slower pace than they had been while she was pinned to the ground.

_Can't worry about that now,_ she thought.

"Where the hell did those dogs come from?" Ritsuko demanded of Casper.

"They're the Guard Dog Anti-virus Program," Casper explained. "I rebooted it so they could help you! This is a computer, and you can manipulate the programming, just like I can!"

"Why didn't you _tell_ me about this?!" Ritsuko yelled.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought the brilliant computer programmer like you would have been able to figure it out!" Casper responded.

"Casper! You—"

"Less yelling! More fighting!" Casper snapped.

Releasing a wordless growl, Ritsuko turned back to the Angel. Concentrating, she cast her mind out, finding that a number of options she hadn't noticed before were indeed at her disposal.

It was extremely strange sensation that was both like discovering a limb you never knew you had before, and feeling as though there was command prompt inside your head, patiently waiting to be used. However, Ritsuko didn't bother to worry at the oddness of it, and activated a software security program.

A half a dozen VTOL attack aircraft suddenly appeared in the air around the Angel, each one with the "T3PD" emblem emblazoned on the side, along with the gold star of the city's police station.

As one, the virtual planes opened up, spewing missile barrages at the Angel. The monster was too huge and too slow to hope to dodge the hail of ordnance, and they blossomed into orange fireballs that briefly obscured her view of a good portion of the Angel.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, Ritsuko saw the rogue AI's approaching. Balthasar and Melchior had apparently managed to deconstruct the guard dog program and were charging her again.

"Not this time," Ritsuko spat.

The ground around her erupted, and a barrier of red-orange flame burst forth in a ring around her, keeping her out of the conquered supercomputers' reach.

"Firewalls!" the blonde exclaimed. "Feel the heat ladies!"

_Good god, that was corny,_ she thought immediately afterwards. _It sounds like something out of some crazy giant robot anime, or maybe a comic book._

Meanwhile, the flames around the Angel had faded, revealing what passed for a face on the thing. It looked largely unscathed, but it released pissed off sounding roar, and began to flail its thick arms about, trying to knock the VTOLs out of the air.

"Well, I managed to distract the thing," Ritsuko said. "Now to keep up the pressure."

There was a brief flash of light, and a massive bazooka appeared in her hands. The words "Spyware Blaster" were written across the barrel in big yellow kanji.

"Eat this, you bastard," she said, pulling the trigger.

A great rocket burst forth from the barrel and went spiraling up toward its very big target, bursting into a cloud of flame as it impacted with the Angel.

That was when the beast of living liquid given form turned its gaze upon her.

_Oh, that was a _bad _idea,_ Ritsuko thought.

The Angel roared, and a _tidal wave_ of LCL was suddenly sent Ritsuko's way. The bottle blonde in the blue armor screamed as it crashed over her, dousing her firewalls and sending her reeling.

Like the rabid dogs they had so easily put down, Melchior and Balthasar pounced, pinning Ritsuko to the ground. The blonde _screamed_ at the top of her lungs as she felt the pace of the Angel's invasion of her mind speed up, able to feel everything that she was being overwritten and turned into something foreign and cold.

Summoning strength she didn't know she had, Ritsuko flung both corrupted MAGI off of her.

"Not gonna happen!" she shouted.

Tired of being clever, Ritsuko grabbed a handful of Melchior's lab coat and fired a punch straight at the scientist's face. Balthasar moved to try and defend her comrade, and Ritsuko threw the scientist at her, causing them both to fall to the ground.

"Take that, you—ack!" Ritsuko screamed.

The Angel had reached down and actually picked her up, holding her within its metal hand. The monster began to tighten its fingers, and Ritsuko could soon feel the armor that covered her body starting to crack.

"No!" she shouted. "No!"

It looked like it was going to be the end for Ritsuko, and she supposed there were worse ways for her die. At least this way, she wouldn't survive to see Third Impact and bear witness to all her sins coming to life.

Then she heard what seemed to be the two sweetest words that had ever reached her ears.

"Executing program," Casper said.

Red light suddenly flared from beneath her, and Ritsuko looked down, just in time to see a ruby sphere form in the very center of the Angel's torso. The Angel raised its free hand, and Ritsuko could see its long, sharp fingers shaking badly.

"Do it, you bastard," she said.

As though it heard her command, the Angel suddenly plunged its free hand into itself, shattering its own core. The monster let out a howl of pain, and then abruptly burst like a water balloon. Its metallic parts abruptly dissolved away into nothing, and Ritsuko went crashing down back to the ground.

"Ow," she groaned. "Is virtual reality supposed to hurt?"

"Resetting system," Casper said.

The sea of LCL abruptly vanished, being completely replaced with grassy plains, and the legions that had grown on all the women present quickly faded and then disappeared. Ritsuko allowed herself to lay down.

Balthasar, now free of the Angel, walked over to Ritsuko and squatted down next to her, caressing her cheek. "You did good, Ritsuko-chan. Thank you."

Ritsuko opened her mouth to make some kind of reply, but suddenly—

* * *

—She was back within the bowels of the MAGI, and the only part of her that was clad in the scarab's armor was her right hand, which she quickly removed from the brain of Casper.

_That was insane!_ She thought, willing the armor over her hand to vanish, which it did, painfully.

The scientist just sat there for several seconds, panting and rubbing her temples. She had the mother of all migraines, which didn't exactly surprise her, given what had just transpired.

"Sempai!" Maya's voice suddenly echoed through the tunnel she sat in. "You did it! I knew you could!"

Seconds later, the petite brunette herself appeared next to Ritsuko. However, her jubilation soon turned to concern. "Are you all right?" she asked. "You look very pale."

"I'm fine," Ritsuko said. "The adrenaline rush is just demanding payback, with interest. I hope you didn't have plans for later, because I think we're going to be pulling an all-nighter making sure that MAGI are clean."

* * *

As it turned out, it was three days and two nights before Ritsuko managed to return home and sleep in her own bed, rather than take quick cat naps on the hard couch in the lounge.

She probably would have gotten back sooner, but Tech Division One had made a rather incredible discovery while cleaning out the Pribnow Box. Though most of the Angelic cells that had collectively composed the Eleventh Angel were dead, a small number had survived in a dormant form.

What made the discovery even sweeter was that these weren't just any cells; they were the Angelic nanotech equivalent of stem cells, being undifferentiated and, even more so than the Angels themselves, endlessly adaptable.

There was some talk of destroying them, for fear of resurrecting the Eleventh Angel, but Ritsuko had no such worries. She had seen the thing die herself, after all. Therefore, she wasn't the least bit anxious about the Angel when she pocketed a vial of the cells and took it home with her.

Thanks to the scarab, she hadn't been able to do her job nearly as well as she should have. A lot of people had nearly died, although the scarab had managed to help her rectify the situation. Still, the current status quo was unacceptable, and Ritsuko could only think of one way to change it.

The scarab was broken. She was going to fix it.

"This is _such_ an awful idea," she said to herself as she stood in her own bedroom, but she was committed to this course of action now. "Scarab, I need the armor!"

The scarab seemed only too pleased to comply; it immediately crawled out of her and began to grow, causing the blue and black armor to spread out all over her form. In seconds, she was completely covered by the stuff again.

"At least putting it on doesn't hurt like taking it off does," she muttered.

Unable to quite shake the feeling that she was inviting disaster, Ritsuko uncorked the vial of Angelic stem cells and placed the contents over the damaged section of the scarab.

The results were both incredible and instantaneous. Before Ritsuko's very eyes, the damage was repaired, circuits going back into alignment, and the casing of the scarab covering up what had once been broken. In seconds, the thing was in pristine condition.

Then…nothing happened.

"Well," Ritsuko sighed, "that was anticlimactic."

The next moment, she wished she'd kept her big mouth shut. The scarab unleashed another burst of chattering, and Ritsuko felt phantom fingers—no, phantom _feelers_, like the antennae of an insect—probing along the surfaces of her brain, and within it. Her knees buckled and she fell down to them, clutching at her head and screaming.

The only thing that kept her from losing it entirely was that the strange thing she felt brushing up against her conscious mind wasn't nearly as alien as the Angel had been.

Then, all of a sudden, it stopped, leaving her on her knees, panting.

**_(Ritsuko Akagi)_** The scarab spoke inside her mind. **_(Thank you very much for fixing me.)_**

* * *

Author's Notes: If Ritsuko's method of fighting the Angel felt a little silly to you, well, you're not alone. I was tempted to simply have her use the armor's offensive capabilities to do so, but I had planned to wait for her to fix the scarab before she discovered them and I decided to stick with that.

I have to say, I was afraid I'd have trouble doing a good job with this fic because of my general dislike for Ritsuko, but I'm getting into it. Maybe it's my love for the comic book hero she's becoming.

Merridian, on the subject of the Question, the only EVA character I could see pulling that off is Kaji, and his possession of a Y chromosome disqualifies him from getting his own SOE2 fic.

Gunman, I'm not positive, but I suspect that the third incarnation of the hero Rits is becoming wasn't around yet during the JLU series. Since the second version couldn't get the scarab to work and was basically a Batman-lite who had fun, I can understand why they didn't include him.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader. Now for some fun.

* * *

Omakes

Rejected Heroes-Ritsuko Version (part one)

"Hello, all," Mike313 greeted the readers. "I hadn't planned to do this with any of the ladies besides Asuka, but I had some ideas for ol' Rits that I ultimately rejected but wanted to shared with you. So, without further ado, here to assist me is Ritsuko Akagi herself."

"I feel silly," the bottle blonde said as she emerged wearing a blue and red costume.

"Sillier than you felt after you realized that you'd brought a gun to Terminal Dogma but didn't even try to shoot Gendo with it in End of Evangelion?" Mike asked.

"Shut up, you damn jerk," Ritsuko growled.

"Hey, simmer down there, Ritsuko. So far, my treatment of you has been positively gentle compared to what Orionpax09 does to Asuka," Mike warned. "Did you see what happened to her in chapter eleven of _Lilith's Herald_?"

Ritsuko had seen that. She shuddered at the mere thought of something even half as unpleasant happening to her and immediately decided to play nice.

"Anyway, one idea I had for Ritsuko was The Atom," Mike said, turning his attention back to the readers. "She certainly has the workaholic scientist thing going, and…"

Klaxons suddenly began to blare, accompanied by flashing red lights.

"Well, lookie here, the Eleventh Angel appears to be attacking," Mike observed delightedly. "Ritsuko, why don't you use the size changing abilities granted by your belt to take the fight directly to it?"

"Fine," Ritsuko sighed, pressing a button on said belt.

Rings of energy appeared around her body, resembling the orbits of electrons around a nucleus. Ritsuko rapidly shrank, and though she could have made herself the size of a subatomic particle, she didn't go that small. It was time for the microscopic Angel to mess with someone its own size.

* * *

(Insert totally awesome battle of microscopic scale here)

* * *

"Wasn't that microscopic scale battle totally awesome?" Mike asked. "Yeah, it was, wasn't it? It was so awesome, that I'll have Rits face off against another opponent. Look, Rits! The Fourteenth Angel!"

"What? But how?" Ritsuko asked. "It's too early, and Angels Twelve through Thirteen haven't shown yet."

"This is omake, little issues like that are meaningless! Now go!"

"Right!" she said, rushing outside to confront the giant monster. "Beware, Angel, I'll destroy you with my ability to…shrink."

The Angel of Might actually seemed to laugh at her.

"Crap…" Ritsuko said.

* * *

"And that, dear readers, is why Ritsuko's not The Atom," Mike said. "It would be cool against the Eleventh. So much so I may have to do a 'what-if' one-shot one of these days, but against all the other Angels…not so much."

* * *

Rejected Heroes-Ritsuko Version (part two)

"Welcome to part two of our little informative omakes," Mike greeted the readers. "Ritsuko and I are glad to see you stuck around."

"Yeah, thrilled," Ritsuko grumbled, still looking rather charred from her encounter with the Fourteenth Angel in part one.

"Anyway, onto the next hero," Mike said, and with a few keystrokes, caused Ritsuko's outfit to change into a black and white costume.

"Who am I now?" Ritsuko asked.

"Dr. Light," Mike answered. "Uh, the good one who showed up during the Crisis on Infinite Earth, not the evil and crazy one who raped the Elongated Man's wife."

Ritsuko said nothing, she merely glared at the author.

"It seemed sort of appropriate since Dr. Light II was a Japanese woman and scientist," Mike said, "although I guess to win the irony points, Hikari would have had to fill the role, since I'm pretty sure Hikari means 'light,' but that's the only way EVA's class rep was suited for the role."

The author began to stare off into space, pondering largely moot possibilities. Ritsuko cleared her throat, impatient to get this over with.

"So, what powers do I have?" she asked.

"Powers involving…_light!_" Mike exclaimed in the most dramatic tone he could muster.

"You don't know, do you?" Ritsuko deadpanned.

"Not entirely, no," Mike confessed sheepishly. "Dr. Light's a pretty minor character, especially the second incarnation."

"Well, I guess we know why you rejected this idea, then," Ritsuko said.

"It also didn't help that none of the stuff you research has to do with solar energy, lasers, or light in any form," Mike said. "But yeah, that's the main reason. In fact, the only thing I'm fairly certain you can do is totally ruin Green Lantern Misato's day by seizing control of her constructs, or something like that."

"Really?" Ritsuko asked. "I can finally get her back for having bigger boobs than me!"

Mike sweat dropped. "You didn't mean to say that out loud, did you?"

"No," Ritsuko replied, though she was not the least bit nonplussed. "Now if you'll excuse me…"

Mike typed in a few quick commands on his computer and suddenly Ritsuko was back in her normal clothes.

"You suck, you know that?" Ritsuko asked. "You couldn't even let me have some fun in an omake, could you?"

"I find it more important to give you a fair shake in the story proper," Mike said. "Besides, I like Misato, and I'm not too fond of you. Do the math."

"You're a bastard," Ritsuko growled.

"Not as much as the guy you were sleeping with," Mike replied.

Ritsuko crossed her arms and growled wordlessly.

* * *

Must be something wrong with this thing…

"You Ritsuko Akagi?" the delivery man asked without preamble the moment he saw her.

"Yes," she replied. "How much?"

"Fifteen hundred yen," he replied.

Ritsuko handed him the money, and he gave her the brown bag of food, then began to count out the bills. She was about to put the food aside, but she abruptly stopped and stared at the man.

He must have felt her intent gaze upon him, because he looked up after a few seconds and said, "Something I can help you with, lady?"

"You have a…condition you're not aware of," Ritsuko said. "One that can potentially cause serious harm to your health at its climax."

The delivery guy blinked. "What?"

"You're pregnant," Ritsuko blurted out.

The man gave her a funny look. "Riiiiight," he said. "Well, see you in the funny pages, lady. Oh, and if happen to see Godzilla tomorrow, tell him I said hi."

Ritsuko smacked her forehead with her palm as she closed the door to her home.

"What the hell was _that_ about?" she demanded.

In her head, the scarab unleashed a burst of chatters that sounded suspiciously like laughter.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Two:** The Importance of Clear Communication

_**(Ritsuko Akagi)**_ The scarab spoke inside her mind. _**(Thank you very much for fixing me.)**_

For a very long moment, Ritsuko simply kneeled there on the floor, too shocked to make any reply to the thing. It wasn't that the scarab was showing incontrovertible proof of being intelligent that so stunned her, however. It was that it was still using the same chatters that it had before, but now, she _understood _them.

"Wha…?" she stammered stupidly, trying to run a hand through her hair, only to come into contact with the armor, which still covered her body.

_**(Are you all right?)**_ The scarab asked in a worried tone. _**(My repair didn't damage **_**you**_** did it?)**_

The thing sounded so earnest and concerned for her that Ritsuko found herself actually taking a liking to it, almost despite herself. At least she now knew that the bug that had embedded itself into her back was friendly.

"No," she replied. "I'm fine. Just a little…surprised."

_**(Oh, I guess what I did must have been surprising.)**_ The scarab replied, its clicks and chatters somehow sounding sheepish. _**(Sorry. It just seemed natural for me to do that.)**_

"Whoa, hang on a second," Ritsuko said. "What exactly _did_ you do? And for that matter, what _are_ you and what's your purpose?"

_**(I just sort of finally made full use of my link to your central nervous system, connecting our minds. That really should have been done when I first bonded to you… I think.)**_ It said, sounding suddenly uncertain. _**(As for what I am and what my purpose is…)**_

"…Yes?" Ritsuko prompted after a few moments of silence.

_**(I do not know.)**_ The scarab spoke, sounding bewildered. _**(Shouldn't one know what one is and what one's purpose is, Ritsuko Akagi?)**_

"You can just call me Ritsuko," she replied distantly, her mind elsewhere at the moment.

_It's telling the truth,_ she thought. _It really doesn't know any better than I do._

Ritsuko knew this not because of any type of intuition (as a scientist, she scorned such nebulous sources of knowledge), but because she was inside its mind, just like it was inside hers. She could feel its confusion, and she knew it wasn't deceiving her— because it _couldn't_ deceive her.

_**(It seems like a lot of my memory was corrupted by the damage.)**_ The scarab said, sounding despondent. _**(I might never be able to recover it. I might never know who or what I am!)**_

"Hey, hey, calm down there," Ritsuko said, doing her best to sound soothing and feeling very awkward while doing it. "Panicking won't help anything."

_**(Yes, you're right.)**_ It agreed, but it sounded shaky. _**(But—)**_

"No buts," Ritsuko interrupted. "Let's look at all of this logically. Do you remember anything besides what you… uh, shared with me?"

_**(Yes.)**_ It replied. _**(I remember at least some of my capabilities and the functions of the armor.)**_

Instantly intrigued, Ritsuko asked, "Can you tell me about those?"

A second later she wished she'd kept her curiosity on a leash, as such an overwhelming surge of information flooded her brain that it was like being punched in the head. The scientist actually blacked out for a brief moment, and when she came to, she found herself laying on her bedroom floor rather than kneeling on it.

_**(Sorry.)**_ The scarab apologized immediately. _**(I don't quite know what your ability to process data is like compared to mine yet.)**_

"Uh, that's all right," Ritsuko replied as she sat up, mostly because she didn't know how else to respond. "Do you think you can send me some of that again, but more slowly this time?"

_**(I could, but how will this help?)**_ The scarab asked. _**(It won't explain what I am.)**_

"Maybe not," Ritsuko agreed, "but I want to know. You've been a rather large intrusion in my life these past few days, and I'm curious about you."

_**(Oh.)**_ The scarab replied, sounding contrite.

The flow of data started again, this time at a more manageable speed. It was a very strange sensation that Ritsuko never would have been able to put into words. It was almost like the information was being beamed directly into her brain, but at the same time, she could almost see it displayed before her eyes.

"Hang on a second. Does that one really work?" she asked, using her mind to show the scarab which function she meant.

_**(Of course it does.)**_ The scarab replied, sounding slightly insulted. _**(Here.)**_

Suddenly, four transparent wings, like those of a dragonfly, sprouted from the back of the armor. They immediately began to flutter at speeds that would put a hummingbird to shame, and Ritsuko soon felt her feet rising up off the floor.

"Amazing," she breathed as she looked down.

_**(This is just a basic function.)**_ The scarab said, sounding rather smug. _**(Would you like to take a flight around the city?)**_

"Well…"

_**(Wonderful!)**_ The scarab said cheerfully.

Ritsuko let out a cry of surprise as she suddenly went flying forward, heading straight for her (mercifully open) bedroom window. Seconds later, she was out in the open air, and flying upwards into the starry sky at high speed.

"Don't _do_ that!" Ritsuko shrieked.

_**(Sorry.)**_ The scarab replied, sounding like a scolded child. _**(I just thought you'd enjoy it. Should I take you back?)**_

"No," Ritsuko said, calming down. "This is actually sort of… fun. But you _can't_ just take me for a ride like that again."

_**(Oh. All right.)**_ The scarab said, sounding pleased again. _**(Why don't you control our flight?)**_

Ritsuko blinked, surprised by the suggestion. However, before she could even express her surprise, the scarab transferred the information on how to control the wings into her mind and handed over the proverbial keys.

Initially cautious, Ritsuko began to fly about in slow, easy circles. However, soaring through the sky proved so effortless that she quickly started to perform elaborate loops and other aerial stunts.

At some point, she realized that she was laughing. That shocked her; it had been such a long time since she'd been happy enough to just have laughter bubble out of her in such a manner that she'd almost forgotten what it felt like.

_Which is really, really depressing,_ she mused.

She shook her head, banishing the dour thought from her mind, and decided to just continue luxuriating in the feeling of complete and utter freedom that came with unrestricted flight.

_This is so nice,_ she thought. _It feels like I've left all my problems back on the ground._

Feeling her confidence in her flying abilities growing, Ritsuko attempted a series of complicated aerial acrobatics. This went fairly well until she went into the triple midair cartwheel, after which Ritsuko felt a wave of vertigo accompanied by sweeping nausea. Suddenly finding the sensation of flight to be not nearly as enchanting as it had been a moment ago, the scientist quickly searched for a place to land, now craving the feel of solid ground beneath her feet.

The first suitable place she found was the roof of an abandoned building. Ritsuko took a few deep breaths she lightly touched down, feeling relieved as her roiling stomach began to settle almost immediately.

"Clearly, I still need practice at this flying thing," Ritsuko muttered to herself.

_**(This place is different from where we were.)**_ The scarab spoke up. _**(Why?)**_

Looking about, Ritsuko realized for the first time that she had flown into the bad part of the city. The building she had picked for her landing zone was abandoned, probably having once been a factory.

"This part of the city is different," Ritsuko tried to explain. "It's poor… depressed."

_**(I'd be depressed if I lived here, too.)**_ The scarab commented.

Ritsuko shook her head. "Not like… you know what, never mind."

_**(Okay.)**_ The scarab said, clearly not perturbed by the way she was dropping the point. _**(Hey, you think this place is abandoned, right?)**_

Ritsuko blinked. She hadn't told the scarab that, but it knew it anyway. Clearly, having the scarab hooked up directly to her central nervous system would take some getting used to.

"Yes," she replied.

_**(I'm picking up human life signs within this building.)**_ The scarab said. _**(Should we check it out?)**_

"Why would we do that?" Ritsuko asked incredulously. "So some people are using the place for something. That's none of our concern."

_**(They could be up to something. One person's heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration are elevated well beyond the norm.)**_ The scarab said. _**(Can we check it out? Please?)**_

Ritsuko rolled her eyes at the scarab's silly pleading, knowing that the symbiotic organism wasn't going to relent any time soon. "Fine," she sighed. "But once we see that it's nothing, we're heading home."

The scarab quickly agreed, and Ritsuko looked about until she spotted a doorway leading from the roof to the inside of the building.

* * *

Takei would be the first person to admit that he'd had some very bad ideas in his days. As a very young child, he'd once attempted to emulate the way his parents would unlock the front door by trying to stick a key he'd somehow gotten into a power socket. Only the quick action of his mother had prevented him from electrocuting his young self. At the age of thirteen, he'd attempted to impress a girl by "borrowing" his father's car and offering her a ride. Through sheer dumb luck he'd avoided the police, but his parents' wrath had not been so easily dodged.

Yes, his mind had birthed some truly terrible ideas, but he'd thought he'd left most of his ability to scheme up the truly disastrous ones in the past along with his impetuous youth.

Yet when a member of the local yakuza had come to his shop and offered him "protection," Takei had somehow thought that it would be a good idea to refuse, thus proving his arrogant assumptions about himself wrong. Which was why he was now tied to a chair in the middle of an abandoned factory, with a number of men who were much larger than he was looming over him.

"C-Come on, guys, there's no need to resort to violence," he pleaded, even as he continued to vainly struggle against his bonds. "It was all just a… a misunderstanding. Really. I'll pay you double your usual fees if you just let me go."

"If it were up to me, I'd be just fine with that," the leader of the group said. "But I have orders from higher up. Apparently, your stubbornness inspired others to follow your example. So I've been told to make an example out of _you_."

With that said, the man reached into his coat and produced a dagger. Takei's eyes widened. The whole world seemed to slow down as terror mounted within him, and his senses all seemed to go into overdrive. He was almost painfully aware of the drop of sweat that was running down the side of his face, the body odor of himself and the yakuza members standing around him, the way the light flashed off the blade of the dagger in the leader's hand, the blue dragon tattoo on said hand that snaked out of and then back into the man's sleeve, the creaking noise that was coming from the old catwalks above them…

Wait, what?

Before Takei could gather his thoughts, there was a loud crash as one of the factory's aging catwalks collapsed, and something blue went falling into a huge pile of cardboard boxes that lay below it.

"What the hell?" the leader of the group of yakuza members exclaimed as they all turned to face the boxes.

* * *

_Okay, this is bad,_ Ritsuko thought as she stumbled her way out of the mountain of cardboard she'd ended up in, neither herself nor the scarab having been quick enough on the draw to get her flying after the catwalk had collapsed.

She finally managed to extract herself from the boxes which had broken her fall, stepping out of the great heap of the things. She sighed in relief, glad to be free of them.

Then she heard several ominous clicks as the yakuza members all pointed their guns at her.

_Oh, crap,_ she thought, swallowing.

"What the hell is it?" one of the men asked warily.

"A new superwoman?" another asked, a note of trepidation clear in his voice.

Ritsuko blinked, stunned by the reactions of the two men. _Are they… are they afraid of me?_ She wondered.

She couldn't remember the last time anyone had been afraid of her. Intimidated by her intelligence, yes, but afraid of her? No. Oh, a few of her subordinates feared the Project-E Chairperson, because she could fire them, but nobody had ever taken seriously the prospect that Ritsuko Akagi would mess them up, at least not so far as she knew.

Yet standing before her was a group of criminals with guns, and despite her less than glorious entrance, _they_ were afraid of _her_.

It was a heady thought.

"I don't care _what_ the hell she is!" the leader of the group of criminals shouted, rudely pulling Ritsuko from her thoughts. "Shoot her!"

Almost as one, the men fired, the shots echoing in the large, mostly empty factory. Ritsuko's eyes widened beneath her armor and her brain, her incredible keen brain, instantly went into neutral.

Fortunately, the scarab wasn't nearly as frightened as she was.

Two great pieces of metal that each resembled a very large, very blue beetle wing burst out of the armor's arms, shielding Ritsuko's entire body. The faux blonde heard the sharp _pting!_ sound of bullets bouncing off the barrier without immediately realizing what had just happened or where the shield in front of her had come from.

Then her mind finally caught up with the situation.

_Thanks for the save,_ she told the scarab.

_**(My pleasure.)**_ The scarab replied, sounding like it was having a grand old time. _**(Now, what do you say to showing these guys who's boss?)**_

Ritsuko grinned. _Works for me._

The armor over her right hand and half of her forearm began to shift and change, until a wicked and very sci-fi looking gun had been formed.

_**(Annihilator beam ready.)**_ The scarab said, its tone one of gleeful ferocity. _**(You may fire when ready.)**_

_Wait, 'Annihilator beam'?_ Ritsuko asked.

_**(Breaks normal organics down into their component atoms. Don't worry, it'll only take one shot to neutralize each one.)**_ The scarab vowed.

_I don't want to _kill_ them!_ Ritsuko snapped.

There was a brief pause, and the scientist could easily feel the scarab's surprise and incredulousness. _**(Why not?)**_ It demanded.

_I don't have the right,_ Ritsuko answered firmly. _Now, please, something non-lethal._

_**(Oh, fine.)**_ The scarab said, as though Ritsuko was being the biggest killjoy in the world.

The weapon on her right arm quickly reconfigured itself, becoming smaller and less frightening in appearance, though still looking every inch like something that had come out of a science fiction B-movie.

_**(Suppression beam ready.)**_ The scarab announced. _**(Targeting system is on-line.)**_

A reticule popped up before Ritsuko's vision. She carefully parted the beetle wing-shaped shields, just enough for her to see through them and lay eyes on her attackers.

Immediately, the reticule focused itself on the leader. The words "Target Locked" appeared before her vision, written in characters that were completely alien to her but which she had no difficulty reading.

Her arm moved seemingly of its own accord, the scarab's systems guiding her body far more quickly and with far more precision than she could. The sensation should have scared her, or at least unnerved her, but for some reason working in tandem with the scarab to defeat their enemies felt like the most natural thing in the world.

A bolt of electric blue energy burst forth from her weapon and soared straight at the leader of the group of criminals. The man let out a cry as it struck him right in the chest, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious but otherwise quite fine.

"She got Toshi!" yelled one of the remaining yakuza.

"Spread out!" commanded another.

The others obeyed, and the yakuza members quickly scattered, several of them doing their best to reload their pistols as they went.

_Oh no you don't,_ Ritsuko thought, locking onto them and firing with the speed allowed by the scarab's aid. She dropped three more yakuza before they could find cover, leaving only two that managed to escape into the shadows.

Ignoring them for now, Ritsuko went over to their hostage, a middle-aged man who was tied to a chair.

"Are you all right, sir?" she asked.

"I'm fine," he replied. "Who _are_ you?"

"A friend," Ritsuko answered simply. With a thought from her, the armor formed a blade over her left hand, and she cut the man free. "I'd suggest you get out of here and call the police."

He nodded, rubbing his sore wrists as he got up. "Thank you," he said, before he went fleeing from the factory.

With the hostage saved, Ritsuko felt sorely tempted to call it a night and return home. However, the scarab picked up on this and conveyed a wordless blast of displeasure right to her brain.

"Oh, fine," she grumbled. "We'll get the last two. But _then_ we'll go home."

The scarab chattered happily in agreement.

Shaking her head, Ritsuko proceeded deeper into the factory, in search of the two remaining yakuza. They couldn't have gone too far, she reasoned, and they probably wouldn't try to run unless they could take their fallen comrades with them.

_Scarab, can you find them?_ She asked.

_**(Yes.)**_ It replied simply.

Ritsuko was suddenly aware of a wire frame model of the factory being transferred directly into her brain by the scarab. It was a strange sensation, but not the least bit unpleasant. On the model, there was a blue dot that represented her, and a pair of red dots that represented their enemies. One of the red dots was practically on the other side of the building. The other, however…

A shot rang out, striking Ritsuko right in the chest, causing the scientist to let out a cry of pain and surprise.

_Son of a bitch!_ She thought.

The armor had protected her from the bullet, but that didn't mean the shot didn't still hurt like hell. Ritsuko was willing to bet she'd have a bruise there tomorrow.

Instantly, she brought her right arm up and fired a suppression blast at the shooter, not even bothering with acquiring a target lock first. She didn't hit the man dead center like she had with all her other targets, but he collapsed to the ground in an unconscious heap all the same.

_One down, one to go,_ she thought, heading for the remaining red dot on her little map.

As she approached it, it soon became clear exactly where her last enemy was hiding. There was a large piece of rusting equipment right next to him, and Ritsuko was willing to bet just about anything that he was crouched behind it, waiting for her in preparation for an ambush.

_Must have realized that bullets aren't exactly getting the job done,_ she thought. _Be ready, scarab._

_**(I always am.)**_ The scarab replied eagerly.

Keeping her steps even and measured, Ritsuko approached the piece of equipment, doing her best not to give her quarry a clue that she knew where he was. She walked past the rusting machine.

And the criminal made his move, swinging a piece of metal pipe he'd gotten somewhere right at her head.

Ritsuko allowed the scarab to take over, and it reacted faster than any human could hope to. Her right arm went up, and her hand changed from an energy weapon to a frightening-looking pincer claw. There was a surprisingly loud _snap!_ and the length of pipe was cut cleanly in two, soundly thwarting the man's opening strike.

However, the criminal wasn't willing to go quietly, even with the element of surprise lost to him. His free hand—the one that wasn't clutching a now pathetically short length of pipe—swung about, his large fist heading right for her head.

This time, it was Ritsuko who reacted to the attack. She reached up and calmly grabbed the man's fist, stopping it cold. She saw his eyes widen, and unnoticed by him, her own eyes did likewise.

It wasn't the great strength she'd just exhibited that had shocked her; the scarab had informed her that the armor gave her superhuman might. No, it was what she was feeling right then that took her by complete surprise.

She had just realized that for the first time in she couldn't remember how long, Ritsuko Akagi felt powerful. Potent. Dominant.

It was a very pleasant contrast to how helpless she'd been feeling all the time lately.

_I could get used to this,_ she decided, even as the pincer on her right hand morphed back into the suppression blaster, which she quickly used on the yakuza in front of her before he could try to attack again.

Her foes all vanquished, Ritsuko walked out of the old factory, willing the wings to come out of her back again as she left the place. Then she went flying into the night sky, heading for home.

* * *

"That was incredible," Ritsuko said as she flew back into her bedroom through her window not much later.

_**(That was only a tiny fraction of my capabilities.)**_ The scarab said, sounding quite pleased with itself. _**(Would you like me to resume the flow of data from earlier?)**_

"Please," Ritsuko nodded. "I want to know everything that you—that _we_—can do."

It happily complied, and the list of the capabilities the scarab gave her began to scroll through her mind again. A disturbing number of them were rather destructive, to put it mildly. Indeed, several functions made the annihilator beams the scarab had offered her earlier look about as deadly as a water gun in comparison. Ritsuko looked down at her hands, feeling trepidation at the power she had been so enjoying not long ago.

"I think that's enough for now," she said, and the scarab immediately stopped.

_**(Have you gleaned any insight into what I am?)**_ It asked softly.

"I think," Ritsuko said slowly, not sure whether it was the best idea to reveal her hunch but knowing she couldn't keep it from the scarab, not with the close link between their minds, "I think that you might be some kind of weapon."

_**(Oh.)**_ The scarab replied, sounding not the least bit perturbed by this information.

"You're okay with that?" Ritsuko asked.

_**(Why shouldn't I be?)**_ The scarab replied.

She shrugged in response, guessing that it was just as well that the thing could roll with the punches. Then again, the scarab had undeniably displayed a rather vicious streak that evening, so perhaps learning that it might be a weapon really wasn't the least bit disturbing to it.

_**(So… what now?)**_ The scarab asked. _**(Without knowing my identity or being certain of my purpose, I'm… directionless.)**_

"Look, I'll make you a deal," Ritsuko said. "I'm a scientist, so researching things and figuring things out is what I do. I'll do my best to help you find out who and what you are, but I need you to do something for me in return."

_**(What?)**_ The scarab asked nervously.

"I need you to cooperate with me," Ritsuko said. "That means not putting me in the armor unless I ask you to, and being quiet when I tell you. We cannot let anyone find out that you're inside me, or else people will cut me open to get you out in order to figure out how you work and use your power for their own purposes. You didn't show up on any of the tests I ran on myself, but that won't matter if you cause me to give us away, understand?"

_**(Yes, I understand. I promise I won't expose us.)**_ The scarab said earnestly, clearly relieved that she had asked so little of it.

"Good," Ritsuko said, "now, it's time for bed, so if you could get me out of this armor, that would be good."

_**(Right.)**_

Ritsuko braced herself for the agony of removing the armor, but it never came. The blue and black dissolved off her form without so much as a twinge of pain.

"I am really glad I fixed you," Ritsuko commented as she began to change out of her clothes and into pajamas, which for her consisted of panties and a long T-shirt.

_**(So am I.)**_ The scarab said. _**(I'm also glad that I bonded with you instead of someone else.)**_

The image of Gendo Ikari flittered through the scarab's mind as it said this, just clear enough for Ritsuko to catch, and she nodded, shuddering at the idea of the Commander possessing the scarab's power. Clearly, it realized that other hosts would not be so kind to it.

Shutting off the lamp in her room, Ritsuko crawled into bed. "Good night," she said.

_**(Good night.)**_ The scarab replied.

* * *

The next morning, Ritsuko awoke with a yawn and a wide stretch, musing on just how _good_ she felt that day. Unlike usual, the scientist felt like a million bucks, as if she could take on the whole world (or at least, everything contained within her perpetually overflowing inbox at NERV) and win. Heck, the whole world seemed a little clearer and sharper that fine morning.

_Must be not having to worry that the mystery thing in my back will make its presence known while I'm in public,_ she thought. _I guess I didn't realize how much the stress of that was getting me down._

She hopped out of bed, allowing herself another languid stretch, her pleasurable awakening making her even more reluctant to go out and face the harsh realities of the world than usual.

But there was no escaping the real world, so she finally ceased her stretching and began to head for the door, en route to the bathroom.

However, she happened to pass the full length mirror she kept in her bedroom as she did so. Though Ritsuko initially passed right by it, she slowed down two steps later, then stopped completely. For a moment, she simply stood there and blinked dumbly, then she walked back to the mirror and examined her reflection.

She had not imagined it. The twin bulges on the front of her T-shirt _were_ larger and more prominent than they had been the previous night.

"…The hell?" Ritsuko muttered to herself as she looked more closely at her reflection.

Finally deciding that something really was different about her, Ritsuko quickly grabbed her T-shirt and pulled it off herself. What she saw in the mirror when she'd discarded the garment made her jaw drop.

The first thing she noticed were her breasts, which were definitely larger than they'd been the previous night, looking capable of rivaling Misato's famous bust, but somehow also looking firmer than they'd been mere hours ago.

Yet she quickly realized that this wasn't the only change. Her body, which had been suffering the effects of her consuming too much junk food from the NERV vending machines (because that was often all she had time to eat during her hectic days at work), not to mention the effects of approaching thirty, looked completely different that morning. It didn't look like the body of scientist who spent most of her time sitting on her desk chair in her lab any longer. Instead, her body looked like it belonged to an Olympic-class athlete.

"Holy crap," she whispered, staring shell-shocked at the lean, impeccably defined muscles that had replaced the small bulges of fat that had been in their places mere hours before.

"Holy crap," she said again as she saw the peaked biceps that popped up when she flexed her arm.

She leaned in closer to the mirror, and in doing so, she noticed something else that was different about her that morning. "My hair," she muttered, looking at her eyebrows and her scalp. "Am I really blond now?"

**_(Yes, you are.)_** The scarab suddenly spoke up, sounding like it was bursting with excitement.

"Did you do this to me?" Ritsuko asked.

**_(I did.)_** The scarab said proudly. **_(I saw in your mind what you wanted to look like, the idealized version of yourself, so to speak. So I decided to make it a reality. Do you like it?)_**

Through the haze of her slowly diminishing shock, Ritsuko realized that the scarab sounded like a young child looking for a pat on the head after showing an adult its latest piece of macaroni artwork.

"Yeah," she said, twisting her body about to examine it at every possible angle, and not finding an inch of herself she could deem even remotely unsatisfactory. "It's amazing."

**_(I could do more if you want.)_** The scarab said happily. **_(Would you like a sixth finger on each hand, perhaps?)_**

"It would probably increase my typing speed…" Ritsuko mused, and then shook her head, coming to her senses. "I mean, no, no! Look, this is absolutely incredible what you did, and I'm very grateful for it, but you really have to stop using your abilities without asking me first. Remember, if we get exposed, bad things will happen."

**_(Oh, right.)_** The scarab said, its mood dampening slightly.

"Hey, are my wrinkles gone?" Ritsuko asked, quickly forgiving and forgetting the scarab's latest bout of presumptuousness as she noticed this new marvel.

**_(Yes.)_** the scarab replied, suddenly cheerful again. **_(I 'turned back the clock' a few years. Not enough to be really noticeable, but enough to restore a measure of your youthful vitality.)_**

"Well, I'm certainly feeling vital and youthful this morning," Ritsuko said.

Suddenly taken by the urge to test her new physique, the (now real) blonde went down to the floor and began doing pushups and was amazed at how easy it was. Though she'd always tried to work out enough to stay in reasonably good shape (something she hadn't managed of late), she'd never really been athletic, always having been a more cerebral person.

_Wouldn't know it from looking at me now,_ she thought, switching to one armed pushups and barely feeling any more strain than she had before.

Satisfied that she was really as physically fit as she looked, she resumed her original course toward her bathroom, silently wishing that she could take the day and hit the beach or something.

_A nude beach!_ She thought, her confidence soaring, and released a silly little giggle.

After she had cleaned up and gotten dressed for the day, Ritsuko headed down to her kitchen, where she put on a pot of coffee. While the java brewed, she reached into one of her kitchen draws and grabbed a pack of cigarettes.

**_(Oh no, you don't!)_** The scarab suddenly spoke up.

Before she could react, one of Ritsuko's hands was covered in the armor, and thin bolts of electricity burst forth from the fingertips, promptly charring her pack of smokes.

"Hey!" Ritsuko exclaimed indignantly.

**_(You are _not_ smoking those things anymore.)_** The scarab told her sternly. **_(It took me hours to clean all the tar out of your lungs.)_**

"But—"

**_(Besides, you don't need to smoke, anymore.)_** The scarab continued. **_(I managed to neutralize your nicotine addiction. Any desire you have to smoke those awful things anymore is purely psychological.)_**

"You're not going to be swayed on this, are you?" Ritsuko asked.

**_(No.)_** The scarab answered simply.

Ritsuko sighed, thinking about how the scarab had reminded her of a kid earlier. Then she thought back to her own childhood, to when she'd first been bombarded with anti-smoking information in school. Little Ritsuko had then gone home, now with a new, righteous cause, and had tried to make her mother (who, unlike Ritsuko herself, had never smoked more than a pack a day in her whole life), quit smoking.

Naoko had humored her daughter, pretending to quit while in reality she just stopped doing so in front of little Ritsuko for several months.

Of course, the scarab was far more powerful than she had ever been.

With a heavy sigh, the blonde threw her ruined pack of cigarettes into the trash can.

* * *

The scientist's disgruntled attitude didn't last very long, mostly because she was still marveling over how good she felt thanks to the scarab's efforts. Only now that she was in peak shape did she realize how bad she'd felt before. No longer feeling chronically exhausted and generally unwell was like having a huge weight lifted off her shoulders.

"Good morning, Maya," Ritsuko greeted her assistant as the two met in the hallway, just as the petite brunette emerged from one of the elevators.

"Good morning, sempai," Maya replied, then frowned in confusion. "Dr. Akagi, you haven't pulled another all-nighter here, have you?"

Ritsuko frowned slightly. "No," she said. "Why did you think that?"

"Well, the shift just started, and you're here, but you didn't ride down with me," Maya explained, hooking a thumb toward the elevator.

"I took the stairs," Ritsuko replied.

Maya blinked, knowing full well that to get from the ground level to where they now were required traversing nearly twenty flights of stairs. "Why?" she asked.

_Because I could,_ Ritsuko thought, knowing that attempting the feat only days ago would have had her wheezing and panting like… well, like what she was, namely a woman who had smoked far too much for too long.

"Because it's good exercise," Ritsuko answered out loud. "And I can use it."

_Wouldn't know it by looking at you,_ Maya thought appreciatively, thinking that her boss and mentor looked _particularly_ lovely that morning.

Though, strangely, Ritsuko had buttoned up her white lab coat, something she had never done in the past to the techie's knowledge.

"So what's on the agenda today, Maya?" Ritsuko asked as the two headed down the hallway together.

"Today's shaping up to be a doozy, sempai," Maya replied. "Technical Division Two reported problems with the MAGI, so we have to run another full diagnostic, we received some of the parts necessary for a minor upgrade to Unit Zero that the Commander wants done yesterday, the head scientist from one of the American branches wants you to review his new hypothesis on the principles of S2 power generation, and of course there's the usual tasks that need to be done around here."

To Maya's considerable surprise, Ritsuko actually smiled at hearing this, as though it was a challenge she was pleased to be taking on.

_Wow, it's been a while since she reacted to a huge pile of work like this,_ the brunette thought, feeling pleased. For a while there, Maya had feared that the enormous pressure they were all constantly under was crushing her mentor's love for science.

"So, what's first?" Ritsuko asked.

* * *

Four hours later, Maya was about ready to beg for mercy. Not only was their workday particularly labor intensive, but the various jobs they had to perform often had them hopping from one side of the base to the other. And given the size of the base, this was often quite the trek, even when taking into account the elevators and the occasional moving walkway.

"Sempai, please, slow down," Maya panted, following as the blonde walked briskly through the hallways.

If she wasn't so tired and frazzled herself, Maya might have realized that Ritsuko should have been huffing and puffing far worse than she was at this point.

"Come on, Maya, you're younger than me. You shouldn't be having any trouble keeping up," Ritsuko teased but slowed her pace all the same.

"You certainly seem to be in a good mood today, sempai," Maya commented. "Any particular reason why?"

"Oh, not really," Ritsuko lied. "I just had a really good night's sleep last night. Woke up on the right side of the bed, I guess."

_I wish _I _could have a night of sleep that good, _Mayathought. _It's like she's got the energy of ten women today!_

"I'm glad," she said. "If you don't mind my saying so, you haven't exactly seemed like yourself lately."

"How so?"

Maya shrugged, suddenly looking rather sheepish. "You've just seemed rather…tired and depressed for a while."

"Have I?" Ritsuko asked.

"Well, yes," Maya said, then hastened to add, "but you were still getting your job done, so it's not like it was that bad, but…I was worried about you."

Ritsuko smiled warmly at her assistant. "I appreciate your concern, but I'm fine, Maya. Never better, in fact."

"I can see that..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" Maya squeaked.

_Did I say that out loud?!_ The mousey technician wondered.

Ritsuko shrugged. "So, what's left on our agenda?"

"That American scientist, Dr. Mitchell, wants your opinion on his new S2 hypotheses, and the MAGI diagnostic," Maya said. "Other than that, just the usual work."

"In that case, I'm going to look over the notes on that fool's latest leap of illogic," Ritsuko said. "Can you start the diagnostic?"

"Of course, sempai."

"Good. Once I'm done, I'll come and help you," Ritsuko said.

Maya nodded, and the two parted ways. Ritsuko resumed the quick pace she'd been going at before her assistant had asked her to slow down, keeping her pleasant expression on her face all way the to her office.

Once she was inside and had managed to close the door, however, she allowed herself to slump against the wall and release a sigh.

Thanks the scarab she'd been able to forget for a little while, just what she was mired in. However, the moment Maya had so shyly said that she was concerned for her mentor, Ritsuko could only think one thing.

_The Commander's scenario will kill her, and I'm helping make it happen…_

Bile rose up in her throat along with a wave of self disgust at the thought of the bright young woman who so admired her dying by her hand.

_**(Ritsuko?)**_ The scarab spoke up. _**(What's wrong?)**_

_Don't you know?_ She thought back at it, suddenly feeling tired again. _Can't you see it for yourself in my mind?_

_**(Well, I see that there's a plan to combine everyone into one giant life form, and in the process reunite the Commander with his wife, but I don't understand why that's causing you so much grief.)**_ The scarab answered.

So far as it could tell from scanning Ritsuko's memories, humanity wouldn't die if this "Third Impact" were to take place. Everyone would loose their individual bodies, yes, but their consciousness would all live on in a hive mind.

To the scarab, there didn't seem to anything wrong with that. On the contrary, it seemed only right and proper.

_It's not the way humans are supposed to live,_ Ritsuko informed the scarab, sensing its line of thought. _The members of SEELE want it to happen because they want to be immortal, and Ikari wants it to happen so he can be with his wife again, but no one else would ever chose that kind of existence._

_**(Oh.)**_ The scarab said. _**(Then why don't you just stop helping?)**_

_Because, Ikari will have me killed, and then he'll replace me,_ Ritsuko thought.

_**(In that case, why—)**_

The scarab was interrupted by the soft whooshing sound of the automatic door to Ritsuko's office sliding open. The scientist didn't even need to turn around and look to know who it was; only one person made a habit of barging into the office of the Project-E Chairperson without knocking.

Well, actually, two people did, but Misato was considerably louder about it, knock or no.

"Commander Ikari," Ritsuko greeted, turning her chair around.

The scarab released a wordless hiss of anger.

_Shut up,_ Ritsuko told it sternly.

"Doctor," Gendo said. "What is the status of the Dummy Plug Project?"

Ritsuko stifled the urge to breath a sigh of relief. An update on his favorite pet project was all he wanted. For a moment, she'd felt certain he knew about the scarab.

Which had been silly. Gendo Ikari wasn't as omniscient as he liked to make people believe. Yet despite knowing this, Ritsuko was still unable to dispel her fears that he knew things he couldn't possibly have learned.

That, she mused, was one of the most insidious things about Gendo Ikari. Even if you could see through his tricks, you still weren't entirely immune to them.

"The Dummy Plug Project is on schedule, Commander," Ritsuko said. "Is that all you wanted to know, sir?"

Gendo's expression softened very, very slightly. "I want you to accompany me this evening."

Ritsuko froze. If she went to Gendo's home and he saw her undressed, saw her dramatically altered body, he would instantly realize that something very unusual had happened to her. And from there, nothing good would happen.

_**(Say the word and he dies.)**_ The scarab spoke up.

_I told you to keep quiet,_ Ritsuko snapped.

"I'm afraid I can't, sir," Ritsuko said, forcing her voice to remain level.

Gendo raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"I have too much work to do," Ritsuko replied.

"I see," Gendo said after a brief hesitation. "Good afternoon, Doctor."

With that, he turned and left. Once he was gone, Ritsuko went limp in her chair, feeling drained from the effort of keeping her fear concealed.

She hoped that nothing would come from her refusing him. She had never refused him before, so she didn't know how he'd react to this. Would Gendo Ikari have her disappeared because she wouldn't warm his bed any longer?

_Don't be stupid,_ she told herself.

As easy as it was to picture the man as a vengeful sadist, Ritsuko knew that Gendo really wasn't. Oh, he was capable of truly monstrous acts, but he never hurt anyone simply for the sake of hurting them. All his actions were ultimately done for the purpose of furthering his scenario, and so long as she obediently continued to work for NERV, killing her would only be counterproductive to that end. Regardless of whether or not she stopped sleeping with him.

At least, that's how she hoped his thoughts on her refusal would go.

_**(We can still kill him.)**_ The scarab piped up. _**(One blast of an annihilator ray and he's dust—literally. No one even has to know it was you! I can jam all the security cameras easily.)**_

_No!_ Ritsuko thought.

_**(Why not?)**_ The scarab asked, sounding baffled.

_Look, the idea of killing Gendo definitely has a certain appeal, but it wouldn't fix anything,_ Ritsuko thought. _If anything, it would just make things worse, because then SEELE would be firmly in the driver's seat. Gendo and the old men sort of check each other._

Of course, the problem was their desired endgames were both disastrous for the whole world. Only in her wildest fantasies would Gendo and SEELE end up utterly ruining one another's schemes and thus accidentally saving humanity from one another.

_**(Then let's kill him **_**and**_** SEELE.)**_ The scarab said.

_The members of SEELE are hard to find, well protected, and scattered across the globe,_ Ritsuko replied flatly. Then she frowned as a thought occurred to her. _Hey, you didn't seem that disturbed by the Commander's scenario. So why are you so keen on killing him?_

_**(Because he hurts you.)**_ The scarab answered.

Ritsuko suddenly felt a lump forming in her throat. It had been a long time since anyone had shown such simple, sincere concern for her.

_**(There must be some way to stop this Third Impact from happening.)**_ The scarab said.

Ritsuko shook her head with a sigh. _No, it's…_

She trailed off before she could complete her thought, her mind suddenly going back to the previous night, when she'd rescued that poor man and defeated the yakuza thugs with the powers the scarab had granted her. She remembered how she'd felt that night…strong, powerful, invincible.

Like she could take on the world and win.

_Maybe I can stop it,_ she thought, feeling a cautious flicker of optimism. _But how?_

She thought about the awesome resources that SEELE and Gendo commanded. Then she thought about the powers the scarab granted her. Fantastic as those powers were, they didn't seem to match up, not really, not in her mind.

_Given the right lever, you can move the world,_ she told herself. _Maybe the scarab can be that lever._

Part of her wanted to discard that thought immediately, to return to her unpleasant but comfortable feelings of helplessness. However, another part of her seized onto the notion, her keen mind quickly going into overdrive.

The scenarios of both Gendo and SEELE were planned out very specifically, and had been for years now. Unforeseen elements were abhorrent to them, and she could certainly be one of those. Not only that, but with her access to inside information, she could be especially vexing to her enemies. She could hit just the right spots to make the whole house of cards come tumbling down. Perhaps she could even play both ends against the middle and set NERV and SEELE against one another.

_Maybe…maybe I…_we_ can do this,_ she thought.

_**(Yes we can.)**_ The scarab said enthusiastically. _**(So, at what point exactly do we kill Gendo?)**_

Ritsuko smacked her forehead with her palm.

* * *

"Hello, sempai," Maya greeted as Ritsuko emerged on the bottom tier of the command center several minutes later. "That took a long time. Did Dr. Mitchell make some new discovery?"

Ritsuko shook her head. "The damn Yankee's 'findings' were nonsense, as usual," she said. "The man's smart, there's no question about that, but he likes to pretend he understands S2 theory when no one actually does."

"Oh," Maya said. "I see."

"Anyway, sorry I was delayed," Ritsuko said. "Other matters came up."

"It's no trouble, sempai," Maya said. "We've already begun the diagnostic, and so far it looks as if everything's fine. I swear, since the incident with that last Angel, the Commanders demand we check everything out every time the system so much as hiccups."

"Considering how close we came to annihilation, I guess it's only to be expected," Ritsuko said. "So, how far—"

At that moment, a door at the second tier of the command center opened with a soft swish, quite unnoticed by any of the techs on the lowest tier.

_**(WARNING!)**_ The scarab suddenly shrieked. _**(HOSTILE ENGERY SIGNATURE DETECTED! WARNING! WARNING!)**_

Ritsuko was caught off guard by the scarab's frantic cries and went staggering back a step. She clutched her head and winced. Maya's eyes widened in alarm and the technician moved toward her mentor, ready to catch the blonde in case she started to collapse.

"Sempai? Are you all right?" she asked.

"Fine, Maya. I just think I need to sit down for a second," she said, lowering herself into a nearby chair.

"You must have overworked yourself today, sempai," Maya said. "Why don't you just rest for a few minutes?"

"I think that's a good idea," Ritsuko agreed.

_What's wrong?_ She asked the scarab. _Why are you freaking out like this?_

_**(There is a hostile and extremely dangerous enemy in the immediate vicinity!)**_ The scarab said as though that explained everything, sounding panicked.

_Who? What?_ Ritsuko asked.

_**(I…I don't know for certain.)**_ The scarab confessed. _**(But I **_**know**_** that what I'm sensing means us harm, and has the means to fulfill its intentions!)**_

_Is it the EVA's your sensing? Or maybe Adam? Or Lilith?_ Ritsuko asked, not able to think of anything else in the base that could possibly set the scarab on edge like this.

_**(No, it's not them. It's something else. Something bad. Very bad.)**_ The scarab said.

_So, you're sensing some weird form of energy, and you don't know anything about it, except that it's bad?_ Ritsuko asked.

_**(Yes!)**_ The scarab replied, obviously not realizing how that sounded.

_I think there may be some lingering damage that those nanomachines didn't repair, or something,_ Ritsuko said. _There's nothing here that's a big threat._

_**(Yes there is! I know! I know!)**_ The scarab said.

_Look, I'm NERV's resident mad scientist,_ Ritsuko said. _If there was a monster in the basement, I'd know about it. I'd have been the one who created it!_

_**(There's something bad here! Something that wants to hurt us!)**_ The scarab insisted obstinately.

_What do you want me to do?_ Ritsuko asked in exasperation. _All you know is that there's something "bad" here. What am I supposed to do about that? Drop everything and go looking for this mystery thing? Leave the city and abandon the plan to save the world less than an hour after I made it?_

_**(…)**_

_Yeah,_ Ritsuko said.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the middle tier of the command center, Misato was clutching her head and wincing.

"Are you okay, Major?" Makoto asked, noticing the signs of her discomfort almost immediately.

"Feels like I got the migraine from hell the second I stepped in here," Misato groaned.

"That's strange," Makoto said, then turned to Aoba. "You don't suppose there's, I don't know, some kind of gas leak in here?"

Aoba shook his head. "There's no gas pipes or anything that go through here, man. Even if there was something wrong, we'd have started feeling it a while ago."

"Which means that it's me, not this room," Misato deduced. "Ugh, I'm going to go off in search of some aspirin. Uh, keep up the good work, guys."

With that, she retreated out of the command center. To her surprise, the pounding in her head began to abate almost the instant the door shut, and the further she got from the nerve center of headquarters, the more her discomfort ebbed. Abandoning her quest for pain killers, Misato instead ducked into one of the ladies lavatories, pleased to find no one else there.

Walking over to one of the sinks, she turned the knob on the faucet and splashed cold water onto her face.

"That was _weird_," she whispered to her reflection. "And disturbing."

The migraine had only been part of what had assailed her when she'd walked into the command center. Along with the pain had come the overwhelming sense that there was something utterly evil nearby…and the need to eradicate it with extreme prejudice.

Misato was a soldier. She had taken lives before. But never before had she experienced such an incredible urge to _kill_.

She quickly double-checked that no one was in any of the bathroom stalls, then looked at her right hand and concentrated. Within seconds, a ring shimmered into visibility on her middle finger. It was made of green metal, rather on the bulky side, and had a simple symbol on the top: a circle with horizontal lines on the top and bottom, the symbol of the Green Lantern Corps.

Since the dying alien named Abin Sur had given her the ring and charged her with defending order and justice (a task her duties at NERV too often interfered with), the ring had obediently followed all her commands, sometimes offering advice but never trying to take control.

So blasting her with a super migraine and homicidal urges didn't seem like the sort of thing it would do, but why _else_ would such a weird thing happen to her?

_There are always flukes, I guess,_ she thought, splashing more water on her face. _I'll have to do something if this happens again, but I guess it's not that big a deal._

Using a paper towel to dry off, Misato checked her appearance briefly, and then left the bathroom.

* * *

Both the Operations Director and the Project-E Chairperson had a normal day after the incident on the command center, and the strange occurrence began to fade from both of their minds. Indeed, with their often crazy schedules, days might have passed without the incident being repeated, were it not for the fact that they both happened to venture to the parking garage at roughly the same time as they left work.

It was Misato who felt the effects of their proximity first, her pain level suddenly going from zero to ten with such speed that it practically knocked the wind from her lungs.

"Ring," she spoke through gritted teeth, "what the hell?"

It wasn't exactly the most precise of questions, and the ring had asked for clarification of less vague queries in the past, but this time, it answered immediately.

_"The presence of an alien infiltrator has been detected,"_ the ring answered in its flat, otherworldly voice. _"Immediate action to contain this hostile alien is highly recommended."_

Misato clutched at her head, barely able to think straight. It was like there was a voice in her head whispering, "Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill…" over and over again in time with her pulse, and that made it hard to concentrate.

_There's an evil alien here, what else do you need to know?_ A voice in her mind that was her own (or at least, she thought it was) piped up. _You never get the chance to fight the damned Angels. If you let this one go, too, then what did you accept the damned ring _for?

There was a certain logic to this that Misato couldn't deny.

"Ring," she said. "Take out the surveillance cameras in the parking deck. All of them."

_The Commanders will absolutely shit a brick if they realize the Green Lantern was inside NERV,_ she thought, finding she didn't really care about _that_ all that much at the moment. _Hopefully, this'll keep them from realizing it._

Green energy crackled around a camera that she could see, and it stopped panning back and forth, a thin trail of smoke coming off it. Misato gave a satisfied nod, then looked around to see if anyone else was nearby. Spotting no one, she concentrated, and emerald flames flared up around her form. Her NERV uniform was swept away, replaced by a form fitting green, black, and white outfit, complete with a mask. Her body changed as well, becoming slightly more muscular, and her hair became jet black.

"Ring," Green Lantern said, "locate the alien."

A jet of light shot out from the top of her ring and went flying off into the distance. The Green Lantern was quickly flying off in pursuit of it.

* * *

_**(WARNING! HOSTILE ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED!)**_

This blast of noise that only she could hear assaulted Ritsuko for a second time that day, and she nearly went staggering as a result.

"Ugh," Ritsuko groaned. "Look, you can't keep doing this to me, and there's not a whole lot I can do about this thing you keep detecting, unless—"

She stopped speaking abruptly as she noticed a flicker of green from the corner of her eye. Turning, Ritsuko saw that the nearby security camera had abruptly died on her. She looked about, realizing that there was no one else in sight.

_I think I saw a horror movie like this once,_ she thought. _I didn't like it._

Suddenly, a thin stream of emerald light, like a glowing snake, appeared from around a corner and went right up to her, stopping mere centimeters from her form.

The sight of the green light caused the scarab to go ballistic.

_**(I remember now! It's a Green Lantern! Green Lantern energies are what I was picking up! The Lantern is coming for us!)**_ It shouted, and Ritsuko suddenly felt the increasingly familiar sensation of the armor appearing over her form.

Putting her in the armor was something she'd specifically told the scarab _not_ to do without her express consent, but she was so bewildered by this turn of events that she could just stand there.

Ritsuko, like most of the residents of Tokyo-3, had heard of the Green Lantern. The masked super heroine had made a splash some time ago when she'd rescued a young woman from being sacrificed by a cult. The emerald warrior had put in a few appearances since then, but she had mostly fallen off the radar.

_But what the hell is she doing here? She shouldn't be here!_ Ritsuko thought.

But, regardless of the way things "should" have been, the Green Lantern emerged from around a corner in the parking garage, a halo of emerald light surrounding her as she flew toward Ritsuko.

Before Ritsuko could get a good look at the jade warrior, however, multiple warnings, threat assessments, and various analyses of potential weak points began popping up before her vision, thrown up by the obviously frantic scarab.

_Stop that. I can't see!_ She told the scarab, but it ignored her.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" the Lantern demanded in a voice dripping with tightly restrained rage.

"I could ask you the same thing," Ritsuko replied.

It would have been the classic standoff, if not for the fact that both women had little genuine desire for the confrontation, and were both resisting the pull from their respective items of power. Ritsuko was barely able to keep the scarab in check, and the Green Lantern wasn't much better off. All her instincts were telling her that the blue and black thing in front of her was an enemy, and the throbbing pain in her head wasn't helping her keep her feelings of hostility in check.

Green Lantern inhaled a deep, slow breath through her nose, forcing herself to think more or less clearly. "Look," she said. "My ring doesn't like you—"

_**(She's going to attack us!!)**_ The scarab screamed, throwing off Ritsuko's tenuous hold on it.

Before the scientist could react, the bug in her back seized control of her right arm, raising it and transforming the armor over her hand into a wicked looking blaster weapon.

_Stop!_ Ritsuko ordered, but it was too late. A blast of electric blue energy erupted from the weapon, heading straight for the Green Lantern.

The emerald warrior's eyes widened, but her whole being had been tensed and ready for a fight; she had no trouble reacting to the attack. A stream of emerald light came from the top of her ring, forming a construct of shield before her. Ritsuko's energy attack bounced off the jade barrier and was deflected into one of the parking deck's concrete walls, taking out a sizable chunk from it.

_Oh, now you've done it!_ Ritsuko told the scarab.

The Green Lantern felt her self control snapping. She didn't feel very compelled to try and regain it.

"All right, that's it!" she exclaimed, dispelling the shield and firing a blast of emerald light at Ritsuko.

"Ack!" the scientist exclaimed, raising her arms in a gesture of self defense.

The beetle wings shields that she'd used back at the warehouse burst from her arms again, just in time to protect her from the blast of green power. The impact of the attack against her shields pushed her back a good several inches, and the alien metal rapidly began to heat up, soon beginning to glow.

Then, the attack abruptly stopped.

_The hell?_ A bewildered Ritsuko thought. _Maybe she decided I'm too much for her…oh God, I'm becoming delusional._

Slowly parting the two shields, Ritsuko peeked timidly out, in search of the Green Lantern.

A massive green fist filled her vision. The emerald warrior had made another construct of green light, placing it over her right arm, and had gone flying toward her enemy. Ritsuko was only able to stand there as a fist that was twice the size of her head crashed into her like a battering ram.

"Ahh!" she screamed as the force of the blow sent her flying.

Ritsuko landed painfully on the hood of a nearby car, partially crumpling it and setting off its car alarm.

_Okay, that hurt,_ her dazed mind thought as she looked up at the ceiling, stars dancing before her eyes.

Unseen by her, the Green Lantern wasn't allowing Ritsuko to enjoy a breather. A stream of light came from her ring, forming into a hand that grabbed another nearby car and moved it toward her enemy.

Ritsuko didn't quite understand what was happening when the underbelly of an automobile suddenly filled her vision. She was still so out of it that she merely wondered when someone had invented a flying car, and why she hadn't heard about it.

Fortunately for her, the scarab was faster on the uptake. _**(That's it, I'm getting us out of here. Right now!)**_

"Raugh!" Green Lantern roared as she slammed the car downwards, ready to crush her enemy to a pulp.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and Ritsuko vanished, leaving the unfortunate car to take the attack alone.

"What the hell?" Green Lantern muttered, suddenly feeling rather woozy. "What happened? Where'd she go?"

_"Residual energy signature confirms a nineteen-sixty three,"_ her ring said.

"And what does _that_ mean?" Green Lantern asked.

_"Suspect escaped into an extra-dimensional vortex."_

* * *

"Where the hell am I?" Ritsuko demanded.

One moment it looked like she was about to be getting far too up close and personal with the latest model Hyundai had produced, and the next moment she was floating in…something. Ritsuko didn't have the faintest clue what it actually was, except that it looked a lot like a space nebula, and that it was very colorful.

_I'm not in outer space, am I?_ She wondered.

_**(Negative.)**_ The scarab replied. _**(This is the Bleed. It is the space between dimensions.)**_

"Oh, like that's so much better," Ritsuko grumbled. "Get me out of here and back to the real world! Now!"

_**(Okay.)**_

There was another flash of light, and suddenly Ritsuko found herself laying on her bedroom floor.

"That was…surprisingly painless," she decided as she sat up.

She happened to look at her clock at this moment, and her draw dropped. It read 11:30. It had been roughly seven o'clock when she'd punched out for the evening. Nearly four and a half hours had vanished in moments.

_**(Time's different in the Bleed.)**_ The scarab said sheepishly, answering her unasked question. _**(And I don't quite remember how to control the effect. Uh, I'm pretty sure it's still today, though.)**_

_That_ statement caused Ritsuko to do a double take, and she quickly rushed to check the date. She was understandably relieved to find that she had, indeed, lost only a few hours rather than a few days.

"How did she find us?" Ritsuko asked aloud as she willed the armor to leave her form. "And what does she have against us, anyway?"

_**(I don't know how she found us. As for what she has against us, she's the enemy.)**_ The scarab said the last part as though it was self-evident.

Recalling how the Green Lantern had manhandled her, Ritsuko supposed that it was.

She allowed herself to fall back on her bed with a sigh. _Well, I think it's safe to say I've made a permanent enemy of the Green Lantern,_ she thought. _I really shouldn't have let the scarab make me shoot first, but damn, she didn't hold anything back._

Ritsuko shivered slightly as she recalled the way her foe had tried to drop a car on her. The Green Lantern had meant to kill her.

_And hell, maybe I deserve it, but the scarab doesn't. Besides, I have to save the damn world._

The thought of her of all people being the savior of the planet, like some damn superhero, struck her as almost silly, and a small, bitter smile appeared on her face. Most superheroes weren't saving the world from disasters they themselves had help set into motion.

_It's my mess, and I have clean it up, it's that damn simple,_ Ritsuko thought as she stared up at her ceiling. _And I can't let anyone stop me._

Not even the Green Lantern.

* * *

Author's Notes: And so Ritsuko discovers one of the facts of having the scarab, namely that it and Green Lantern rings don't mix very well. In fact, they're like cats and turtles (bonus points for those who get the reference). Heck, poor Jaime was almost killed by a berserk GL Guy Gardner in the _first issue_ of his book, and Guy, though far from a perfect person, is no murderer.

Speaking of Jaime, those of you who followed his adventures know _why_ the scarab and Misato's ring don't like each other. The rest of you will just have to keep reading this to find out.

Anyways, the worst of Ritsuko's "growing pains" are behind her now that she can communicate with the scarab, but she's still got quite a few challenges ahead of her, as you'd expect. Also, as you can see, while the scarab might be itching to kill Gendo, Ritsuko isn't. There's two reasons I did this. One is that I don't want to just copy a certain other SOE fic with a bug theme superwoman. The other is that it seems to me that Rits is stuck in a situation where she has to chose the devil she knows or the devil she doesn't know. I can easily see Ritsuko as someone who could ignore her emotions in order to take what she sees as the wiser option, which is the devil she knows: Gendo.

I realize that I shifted gears pretty abruptly from "Ritsuko realizes she can save the world" to "Green Lantern vs. Blue Beetle" but it just didn't seem realistic for Misato and Rits to not get close enough to set off the respective talismans for days and days, and I really like the idea of this battle.

Animefan, yes the scarab was originally intended for that purpose. However, Ritsuko's scarab was also damaged, thus purging it of that programming like the one in DC canon.

Well, enough of my rambling. Thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

* * *

Omakes

Karma Doesn't Work…or Does It?

_One Week Ago…_

"Ikari," Fuyutski whispered to the Commander of NERV and his former student as they stood on stage, "this event is supposed to be a morale booster. Stop scowling at everyone."

"I don't think anyone is looking at me," Gendo replied. "And in any case, I still think this whole thing is moronic."

"What are you talking about? Everyone's so excited," Fuyutski said, subtly gesturing toward the buzzing crowd.

Before Gendo could make any kind of reply, an attractive young woman hopped up onto the stage. "Hello, NERV employees!" she said to the crowd. "Are you ready to get this event underway?"

The crowd cheered.

"Okay!" the young woman said. "Now, let me go over it real quick for anyone who hasn't heard yet: a tiny portion has been held back from all your paychecks recently, and it's gone toward the purchase of a brand new car! We're raffling off that car right now, and every NERV employee has been entered into the competition! So without further ado, let's see who our lucky winner is!"

She walked over to a large plastic jar containing hundreds upon hundreds of slips of paper, each of which had the name of a NERV employee on it. With great fanfare, she shook up the jar, then removed the top, stuck a hand inside, and pulled out a single slip of paper.

Her enthusiasm died as she read the name printed upon it. "Um, this week's winner is…Commander Gendo Ikari," she said.

The crowd let out a huge, collective groan, the morale booster instantly turning into a morale killer. The most powerful man in the city did _not_ need a free car.

"I didn't even know I was entered into this contest," Gendo said.

"Neither did I," Fuyutski grumbled.

With a small shrug, Gendo walked forward, and claimed the keys to his new vehicle.

"Um, you'll find the car in the parking garage, sir," the woman said.

"Thank you," Gendo said, the barest trace of a smirk appearing on his face as he departed, indifferent to the several hundred disgruntled NERV employees that gazed hatefully at him.

"Um, anyway," the woman said, turning back to the crowd, "make sure you're here next week when we raffle off another car…hopefully to a more deserving soul this time," she grumbled the last part under her breath.

* * *

_Present Day…_

Unseen by Ritsuko, the Green Lantern wasn't allowing her to enjoy a breather. A stream of light came from her ring, forming into a hand that grabbed another nearby car and moved it toward her enemy.

Ritsuko didn't quite understand what was happening when the underbelly of an automobile suddenly filled her vision. She was still so out of it that she merely wondered when someone had invented a flying car, and why she hadn't heard about it.

Fortunately for her, the scarab was faster on the uptake. _**(That's it, I'm getting us out of here. Right now!)**_

"Raugh!" Green Lantern roared as she slammed the car downwards, ready to crush her enemy to a pulp.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and Ritsuko vanished, leaving the unfortunate car to take the attack alone.

"What the hell?" Green Lantern muttered, suddenly feeling rather woozy. "What happened? Where'd she go?"

_"Residual energy signature confirms a nineteen-sixty three,"_ her ring said.

"And what does _that_ mean?" Green Lantern asked.

_"Suspect escaped into an extra-dimensional vortex."_

Before the Green Lantern could ask her ring what _that_ meant, she suddenly realized that one of the cars the fight had trashed looked awfully familiar…

"That _my_ car!" she wailed, recognizing the form of her Renault, mutilated though it was. "And I just got it fixed, too!"

Before she could bemoan the loss of her vehicle further, or wonder about the other one that had been trashed, she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Eyes widening, she flew off, away from the sound, and disappeared.

* * *

Gendo Ikari hummed a little tune to himself as he walked through the parking deck. The scenario was on schedule, the fools at SEELE had no idea about any of his plans, and the superwomen of the city seemed even more oblivious than the old men did. It was a good day to be Gendo.

Then he rounded a corner and saw two utterly ruined cars, on sitting atop the other. His eyes widened as he took them in.

Instantly, the man reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone, dialing Fuyutski's number.

"Sir?" his second in command said.

"Fuyutski, something bizarre appears to have happened in parking deck C," Gendo said. "It looks like one car has been flung atop another. I want you to have security look into this. Make sure they leave no stone unturned."

"Yes, sir. And what will you be doing?" Fuyutski asked.

"Going home," Gendo answered simply, then hung up. "Good thing that wasn't _my_ new car that was totally wrecked." He commented to himself.

With that, he got into his still pristine vehicle and drove off.

* * *

"YATTA!" Shinji shouted as he ran down to the parking deck. "I can't _believe_ I won the second raffle for a car!"

The possibilities seemed endless now that he had his own wheels. He wouldn't have to put up with Misato's insane driving anymore! If he wanted to run away, he could actually get _away_ now! He might gain a real social life! And, most importantly, this could well be a sign that the universe had tired of having him as its designated butt monkey! Oh yes, it was a _great_ day to be Shinji Ikari!

_Let's see,_ he thought, looking at the little piece of paper that told him where the car that went with the keys he was holding was located. _Space 3-J…_

He scanned the parking deck, and soon found the space, which held not one, but two cars in it, one of which was sitting atop the other…

Shinji Ikari said a very bad word very loudly then.

(A/N: Nope, apparently karma _doesn't_ work after all)

* * *

The Dangers of Being Beautiful

Satisfied that she was really as physically fit as she looked, she resumed her original course toward her bathroom, silently wishing that she could take the day and hit the beach or something.

_A nude beach!_ She thought, her confidence soaring, and released a silly little giggle.

_You know what? You only live once, and the world's probably going to end soon, too. I should have fun while I can, damn it!_ Ritsuko decided, heading for her phone so she could call in sick for work.

About an hour later, Ritsuko was pulling her car up near one of Japan's nude beaches. Such places weren't as popular in the Land of the Rising Sun as they were in Europe, but they existed, and one happened to be fairly close to Tokyo-3. Ritsuko had never expected to visit it before, but now she bounded over to the sands without hesitation.

Once she was officially in the nude area, Ritsuko stripped off the bikini she'd worn there. The heads of several men (and not a few women) instantly turned her way.

_That's right, gaze upon the perfection,_ the blonde thought smugly as she spread out a beach blanket and lay down upon it. _Look, Ma, no tan lines!_

* * *

A little while later, Ritsuko was feeling a bit less cheerful. Though she had managed to get a wonderful tan, she had also acquired quite the crowd of admirers, who were all sitting nearby and gazing at her with a disturbing intensity.

Finally deciding that enough was enough, Ritsuko got up, grabbed her blanket, and began to walk off. Her fans got up and followed her.

_Oh, screw this!_ She decided and broke out into a run.

Her zealous admirers began to run after her.

_Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!_ Ritsuko thought as she increased speed.

Eventually, she began to pull away from the horde, and she thought that she was almost home free…when she happened to collide with another person.

"Ooph!"

"Ow!"

Looking up to see who she'd run into, Ritsuko looked up to see Misato, who was just as nude as she was and looking just as attractive.

"Misato?!" Ritsuko exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!"

"It's one of my favorite hangout places," Misato replied cheerfully. "I didn't know you came here, too, Rits!"

"Uh, I usually don't, but…"

"Wow, Rits, you have definitely been working out," Misato commented as she looked at her friend's body. Then he eyes went over to the blonde's bust. "And taking all your vitamins, I see!"

Ritsuko sweat dropped. "Uh, thanks," she said. "Now, not that it hasn't been great seeing you, but I've kind of got a little problem and should get going."

Misato looked behind her friend to see the rapidly advancing crowd of Ritsuko's drooling fans.

"Oh my gosh, Rits! You've got crazy stalkers!" Misato said, as though this was some amusing rite of passage her friend was going through.

"Um, yeah," Ritsuko said. "Hey, I don't suppose you know how to get _rid_ of them, would you?"

"Oh, that's easy," Misato said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Watch and learn!"

As the horde drew near, Misato whipped out a can of pepper spray and fired several blasts of noxious fumes at the crowd. "Back!" the purple haired woman shouted. "Back, I say! Back!"

Reluctantly, the horde did so, quickly dispersing and wandering off.

"See?" Misato said. "Piece of cake!"

"Where were you keeping that pepper spray?" Ritsuko asked. "You're as naked as I am."

With a smirk, Misato took the small can and put it between Ritsuko's breasts. It soon disappeared into the blonde's considerable cleavage.

"You can keep that," Misato said magnanimously.

"Thanks," Ritsuko said, "but I don't think I'll be coming back here anytime soon."

"Oh, being nude only makes that whole 'hentai horde' thing happen faster, it doesn't cause it," Misato cheerfully informed her friend, "not when you're _that_ hot."

_Damn it, scarab!_ Ritsuko thought.

_**(There's just no pleasing some people…)**_ The scarab grumbled in reply.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Three:** Plots and Counterplots

**True Blue Heroine in Town?**

This was the headline that blared forth from the cover of the _Tokyo Tattler_, a total rag of a tabloid which Ritsuko normally wouldn't touch with a ten-foot-pole…but when she'd happened to see a drawing of herself in the armor on the cover as she was passing by a newsstand, well, she'd decided to make an exception.

Apparently, the man she'd saved from the yakuza thugs the other day had decided to tell (and possibly sell) his story, giving a fairly accurate account of what had happened. Fortunately, he'd neglected to mention that she had literally fallen into the whole situation.

_**(Are we…famous?)**_ The scarab spoke up as she skimmed through the article.

_I guess we sort of are,_ Ritsuko replied.

_**(Is that good?)**_ It asked.

_I'm honestly not sure,_ she answered.

It fell silent after that, seemingly satisfied for the moment, and Ritsuko resumed reading the article. However, after the basic rundown of events provided by the man she'd saved, the piece wandering into a lot of baseless speculation about where she'd gotten her powers. For some reason, most of them seemed to involve one thing and one thing only.

_Honestly,_ _why is it always radiation?_ She wondered.

_**(Because most people don't understand what radioactivity is or how it works, instead holding common misconceptions, most of them from science fiction.)**_ The scarab replied.

_That was a rhetorical question,_ she told it.

_**(How was I supposed to know that?)**_

_You got the answer from my mind,_ Ritsuko pointed out. _So I don't see why you couldn't have gotten the nature of the question, too._

The scarab fell silent at that, apparently defeated, and the blonde turned her attention back to the tabloid, this time focusing on the artist's illustrations of her in the armor. It was accurate…up to a point. Some of the details the armor were wrong, and ironically, the picture looked a lot more like she did in the present than she had back then, before the scarab had decided to improve upon her.

_Why do these sort of publications always have to increase the size of the breasts? And the armor isn't exactly skin tight, so you can't see my abs, anyway,_ she thought.

The train she was on came to a stop at the station she wanted, and the scientist got off, tossing her tabloid away into the first trashcan she found on. _Why is the _Tokyo Tattler _so popular, anyway?_ She wondered. _I mean, they can't even come up with good names for people like me. I mean, the Blue Beetle? Really?_

_**(I like it.)**_ The scarab chimed in.

Deciding it was probably wisest not to reply directly to that, Ritsuko instead changed the subject. _Maybe the Green Lantern will see it and realize we're not the bad guys._

The scarab just released a wordless hiss at the mention of the emerald super heroine, dampening Ritsuko's hopes considerably.

By this time, Ritsuko had arrived outside NERV headquarters. After scanning her ID card, she again decided to forego the use of the elevator and took the stairs.

_Have I told you yet how much I'm enjoying the changes you made to my body?_ She asked the scarab.

_**(Only several dozen times.)**_ It answered, though it still sounded quite pleased with itself and not at all tired of Ritsuko's gratitude.

It was about at this point that she arrived at the lab where she spent most of her time at headquarters, finding that her assistant was already present.

"Good morning, Maya," she greeted cheerfully.

"Good morning, sempai," Maya replied in kind. "How are you feeling today?"

"Much better, thank you," Ritsuko said. "So, what's on the agenda for today?"

Looking down at a clipboard she was holding, Maya answered, "EVA maintenance, research…nothing out of the ordinary. Oh, except for that physical you scheduled Shinji for this afternoon."

"Right, well, let's get to work, then," Ritsuko said. "There are a lot of side projects that I'd like to work on today, too."

* * *

The day began to unfold normally enough for the scientist, except that she was ahead of the curve instead of behind it, for once. Turned out that having energy to burn and a chunk of alien hardware with enough computing power to rival the MAGI inside her made doing her job easier.

_Who knew?_ She thought with a smirk.

The scarab was only too happy to offer up the use of its abilities to help her through the day, only reinforcing Ritsuko's image of it as akin to a child looking for a grateful or congratulatory pat on the head.

Not that she took _full_ advantage of what it could do, though. If she started typing at 20,000 words per minute or instantly figuring out computations that the MAGI had to chew on for several seconds before spitting out an answer, well, it would soon become clear that something was strange with her.

Regardless of the way she held herself back, Ritsuko was still done with her morning's duties before it was time for her to see the Third Child. Taking advantage of her free time, she quickly made her way to her small, rarely used office and booted up her computer. Not long afterwards, she was browsing through the thousands of files inside the MAGI database.

_**(What are you looking for?)**_ The scarab asked after a minute.

"Nothing specific," she muttered, reaching into a pocket and withdrawing a pack of gum. Unwrapping a piece of it, she popped it into her mouth and began chewing.

_**(Then how will you know when you've found it? And what's with the gum?)**_

"The gum is to keep me from reaching for a cigarette. I'm just accustomed to doing something with my mouth," she explained between chews. "Are you sure you can't cure the psychological aspect of my addiction, too?"

_**(For the hundredth time, yes, you're on your own with that part of it.)**_The scarab replied. _**(Now, how can you expect to find something when you see it if you don't know it while you're searching for it?)**_

"Trust me, I'll just know," Ritsuko responded.

"Know what, Doctor?"

Ritsuko was so shocked by the sound of the flat voice coming from behind her that she accidentally swallowed her gum and nearly jumped right off her chair. Recovering somewhat, she spun around and got to her feet, commanding her suddenly hammering heart to slow down. It didn't.

"Hello, Commander," she greeted, then practically had to bite her tongue to keep herself from adding some remark about knocking before entering her office.

She knew it wouldn't have been appreciated, or heeded, for that matter.

"Know what?" Gendo reiterated.

Ritsuko knew that the slightest hesitation in answering would arouse suspicion, so she said the first thing that came to her mind. "When I'm finished with developing the Dummy System," she said.

Gendo tilted his head ever so slightly to the side. It was a gesture so subtle that most people wouldn't have noticed it, but Ritsuko knew him as well as anyone alive, except perhaps for Kozo Fuyutski.

"How could you complete the Dummy System without knowing it?" Gendo asked.

"It's like how an artist will have trouble knowing when to put down the brush or chisel," Ritsuko replied, more because she was now committed to the lie she'd just told than because she thought of herself as a technological Michelangelo.

"I didn't know you were so…poetic," Gendo commented, his eyes seeming to bore into her, despite the amber tinted glasses that separated them from her.

Ritsuko shrugged. "Well, perhaps it's not as…artistic as all that. I doubt that I'll have time to perfect the technology, so I have to judge when I can label it serviceable. Then again," she frowned, "there are a lot of things about me you don't know."

_And a lot of things about you I don't know,_ she mentally added.

Indeed, now that she thought about it, she realized just how little she knew about the man before her. She had no idea what his favorite food was, what kind of music he liked, or…any of those little details you were supposed to learn about someone you were in a relationship with.

How the hell had she never _realized_ just how empty her so-called relationship with Gendo Ikari was, how lacking it had been in any intimacy aside from the purely physical?

Gendo didn't respond to her little remark, instead saying, "I expect that I'll be spending the night at home, unless an urgent situation arises."

She heard the unspoken question, and it annoyed her that he didn't just come out and ask it, expecting her to read between the lines and come when called. A lot of things about Gendo Ikari were annoying her lately, now that she let them.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I really am very busy," Ritsuko said in an apologetic tone.

It was subtle, but Ritsuko still caught it, mostly because she was watching for it. A faint twitch passed over Gendo's face, as though he was about to narrow his eyes at her but stopped himself. Her second evasion had irked him.

"I see," Gendo said, "in that case, carry on."

With that, he departed from her office without another word.

_**(Just give me the okay and he dies. Right now.)**_ The scarab piped up.

_I told you, that's not the plan,_ Ritsuko replied sharply, this time making sure to keep her communication with the scarab silent. Then, in a softer "tone" she added, _but thank you for keeping quiet and letting me deal with him._

_**(You're welcome.)**_ The scarab replied. _**(But if killing him isn't the plan, then what is? You don't seem to have one.)**_

_Damn it, Jim, I'm a scientist, not a schemer,_ Ritsuko replied, a small smile forming over her face. _That's always been _his_ job._

The scarab didn't immediately reply. Instead, it went rustling about through her mind as it tried to figure out the reference.

_Look, I've got several ideas, as you probably know,_ Ritsuko continued. _Commander Ikari has a lot of nightmare scenarios. I just have to figure out which ones will be the easiest to bring about…without getting the world destroyed by the Angels in the process._

_**(That would be bad.)**_ The scarab said dryly.

_Yes, yes it would,_ Ritsuko said. _Which is part of the reason I have to be so careful about what I'm doing…why we can't just rush in with guns blazing._

She could _feel_ the scarab's displeasure at the little jab, but it didn't argue the point.

_**(Hey, aren't you supposed to be giving that pilot his physical right about now?)**_It asked instead.

Ritsuko's eyes widened as she looked at the clock in her office. "Oh damn, I almost forgot!"

* * *

Sitting on the examination table within a room in the NERV infirmary, Shinji shivered slightly. For some reason, the room was kept on the chilly side, and he was wearing only the thin gown that the nurse who had seen him in had instructed him to change into. That was almost twenty minutes ago.

Looking at the clock again, Shinji decided he'd give it a few more minutes before he dressed and ventured out to see if he'd been forgotten.

Then, just as his considerable store of patience was nearly expended, the door to the examination room was thrown open, and the chairperson of Project-E burst in.

"Sorry, I'm late, Shinji," she said in a rush. "I was working on some other projects and I lost track of time."

Shinji blinked. "Dr. Akagi, you're the one doing the physical?"

"Yes," she said, visibly regaining her composure and grabbing a file that contained the Third Child's basic medical history.

"Um, okay," Shinji said, confused. "Why?"

She turned away from his file to look at him. "Well, I know that I'm not really a medical doctor, but I'm more than qualified to give you a simple physical."

"Oh, that's not what I meant at all," Shinji rushed to clarify, as usual not wanting to give offense. "It's just that, well, don't you have more important things to do than conduct my physical, Dr. Akagi?"

"You can just call me Ritsuko when we're alone, Shinji," she said as she opened one of the drawers in a nearby container of medical supplies and withdrew a stethoscope, "and I'd say that making sure our best EVA pilot is in good health is pretty high on NERV's list of priorities. Really, this should have been done as soon as you decided to pilot permanently. I don't know how it slipped through the cracks."

"I…I'm not the best pilot," Shinji stammered bashfully, feeling his face heat up.

"Slow, deep breaths, please," Ritsuko said as she pressed the stethoscope to his chest.

He complied, and the conversation came to a brief halt while she listened to his heartbeat.

After a brief moment, she was done. Taking the stethoscope away, she began to write something into his file. "You're not the best pilot? You could have fooled me," she said. "With the exception of the Eleventh, you were instrumental in the defeat of all the Angels we've fought so far, if I remember right."

"Um, well…" he stuttered. "Asuka was really the one who defeated the Eighth."

"And you saved Asuka immediately afterwards," Ritsuko countered. "So, am I correct in saying that you've played an important role in every battle?"

"Well, I guess so," Shinji finally admitted, wondering why she was so insistent about debating this point. "But, I mean, it's not like I'm really all that good. Half the time it seems like it's more Unit One doing it than me, and I just happen to be in the right place at the right time a lot."

"Some say that history is made when the right man meets the right machine at the right moment. Which make a bit of sense, when you think about it. Even most of the greatest men who ever lived might well have never been remembered if they'd been born at a different time," Ritsuko commented. "Even if there was an element of luck involved, it doesn't mean that what you've done for NERV is any less significant."

"I guess you're right," Shinji said uncertainly, wanting to debate the issue further but unable to come up with a decent argument.

Nodding in satisfaction, Ritsuko grabbed a small flashlight. "Then you understand why your continued good health is important to NERV?"

"I…I guess," he said again as she shined the flashlight's beam first in one of his eyes and then the other.

"Good," Ritsuko said. "It would be a shame if you didn't realize how valuable you are."

"If you say so," Shinji replied mildly.

She smiled. "I'm just trying to congratulate you a little for all the work you've done for us, Shinji," she said. "There's no need to look so uncomfortable."

"Sorry," he replied reflexively.

"No need to apologize, either," she said in an amused tone.

"S…I mean, right," he said with a sheepish smile.

Ritsuko smirked, then produced a blood pressure cuff and instructed Shinji to roll up his sleeve. The Third Child complied obediently, silently enduring the test as the strip of synthetic fabric and Velcro around his upper arm began to gradually tighten.

_I've never seen Ritsuko so…_ His mind went groping through his vocabulary for the appropriate word, but didn't find one.

Or rather, it did, but it felt wrong to him to describe Ritsuko as acting "human" now—thus implying that she usually didn't behave that way—even in the privacy of his own head.

Still, it wouldn't be inaccurate to say that in the past, Ritsuko had always behaved in a very professional manner, to the point of being cold even.

_I guess I just never saw this side of her before,_ he mused, looking at her. _You know, come to think of it…_

Shinji Ikari was not, contrary to what a certain roommate and fellow EVA pilot of his maintained, a pervert by any reasonable person's definition of the term. He _was_, however, a fourteen-year-old boy, and as such he couldn't help but notice how much younger she appeared than he remembered her looking, the luster her golden hair seemed to have acquired…or the way her breasts bulged against the confines of her closed lab coat, for that matter.

He looked away from Ritsuko, blushing. _I shouldn't be thinking such things about Dr. Akagi,_ Shinji told himself.

Yet curiosity gnawed at him as he submitted himself to the battery of routine tests; he had always considered Ritsuko to be attractive, but she'd never looked _this_ attractive to him before.

"Dr. Akagi," he finally spoke up as she was drawing a vial of his blood for testing, "can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," she replied, "you can ask me anything."

Despite how amicably delivered this offer was, Shinji decided to wait until she'd gotten as much of his blood as she needed and had removed the needle from his arm before he actually posed the question he had in mind. The past few months had given him a keen survival instinct when it came to women, if nothing else.

"Well, um, I just noticed that you look…different. In a good way," he quickly added. "I was just wondering why. Or if it was all in my head. Or…?"

He trailed off, suddenly wishing that he'd never spoken up or asked such a potentially dangerous question. However, the blonde smiled, as though she was pleased he'd mentioned it.

"I recently decided that if I was going to survive this job, I'd need to take better care of myself," she told him. "I've been eating better and making more time in my schedule for exercise. Also, I stopped smoking."

"Oh, well, congratulations," Shinji said, offering her a small smile. "My uncle could never quit smoking, though he tried several times."

That was something of an exaggeration on his part; his uncle had never tried to stop smoking, at least not voluntarily. Shinji just hated the smell of cigarette smoke so much that when he was younger, he'd briefly taken to hiding his uncle's packs of cancer sticks.

He still shivered slightly when he recalled how angry the man had been upon discovering what his nephew was doing.

"Well, it _is_ pretty hard to stop. Speaking of which…" she pulled a pack of chewing gum out of one of her pockets. "I've been chewing this to substitute for the cigarettes. Would you like a piece?"

"No, thank you," Shinji politely declined.

Shrugging, Ritsuko began to take out a piece, then she seemed to think the better of it as an expression of distaste briefly appeared on her face and she put the chewing gum away.

"In any case, I'm glad someone noticed," Ritsuko said, spinning about once as though she were modeling a piece of clothing. "I wasn't really sure if I was actually getting any results for my efforts."

Somehow, Shinji just knew that if he opened his mouth at this point in time he'd jam his foot right into it, so he just nodded, painfully aware of the heat in his face. This was almost like getting teased by Misato, except that he wasn't truly sure if he was being teased, or if Ritsuko was just pleased with herself.

"Anyway, it looks like we're done here," Ritsuko said. "Assuming, that is, that it's okay with you if we skip the hernia check." She added in a dry tone.

Shinji paled, which was not exactly the way he'd hoped to lose the mild blush he'd been sporting. "That's fine," he quickly agreed.

"Good," Ritsuko said. "I'll make sure NERV knows you're still fit for duty."

Shinji nodded. "So are we done? Can I go?"

"Hold on just a moment, Shinji," Ritsuko instructed as she finished writing in his file and put it away. "There's something I wanted to give you."

Shinji blinked in surprise. "You got me…a present?" he asked, wondering why the scientist would ever feel compelled to do such a thing, seeing as how they didn't even know each other very well.

"It's just a little something," Ritsuko said, reaching into one her lab coat's large pockets and producing a trio of SDAT tapes.

"Thank you," Shinji said, reaching out for them. "What's on them?"

"Lectures about the science of metaphysical biology," Ritsuko answered.

The Third Child's hand stopped halfway to the tapes. There was a brief, but noticeable pause.

"Uh, Doctor…um, I mean, Ritsuko, you do know that Asuka's the one who's already graduated college, not me, right?" he asked slowly.

Ritsuko chuckled. "Of course, I know that, Shinji. I'm not giving you these because of the subject matter—which I'm sure will probably bore you to tears—but because of the person who gave the lecture."

He frowned slightly. "Who…?"

The Third Child trailed off as realization hit.

_No, _he thought. _It couldn't be…_

"The lectures were given by a very bright young scientist named Yui Ikari," Ritsuko said with a smile.

Speechless, Shinji finally allowed his hand to complete its journey to the tapes Ritsuko was offering him, accepting them reverently.

"I learned about how your father destroyed every picture of your mother," Ritsuko said. "I thought hearing her voice would be the next best thing to seeing her, even if she is just giving a lecture."

"Dr. Akagi…Ritsuko, I don't know how to thank you," Shinji said softly.

"No thanks necessary, Shinji," she replied with a smile. "In fact, this is just my way of thanking _you_ for piloting."

"All the same, thank you," he said, getting off the examination table and bowing formally to her.

"You're welcome," she said. "Now, I'll just leave you to get changed. I'll see you around, Shinji."

* * *

A few hours later, Ritsuko punched out for the day and headed for the parking lot. The scarab, which had mostly kept silent as she went about her usual work, spoke up as she was getting behind the wheel of her car.

_**(He was attracted to you, you know.)**_

Ritsuko frowned in confusion. _What are you talking about?_

_**(Shinji Ikari. I was monitoring him while you were giving him that physical, and his heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature all went up.)**_ The scarab said. _**(He's attracted to you.)**_

Ritsuko resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she started her car and pulled out of her parking space. _Of course he is. He's a fourteen-year-old boy, and I look like I belong on a centerfold, thanks to you._

_**(So…is this part of the plan?)**_

"Him being attracted to me? No," Ritsuko answered flatly.

She and the scarab didn't speak any more for the rest of the drive, which passed quickly. Soon finding herself pulling into her driveway, Ritsuko got out of the car, stretched…and then slapped herself on the forehead.

_**(What is it?)**_ The scarab asked.

_I told Gendo that I was too busy to go over to his place, and now here I am, at home, right on time,_ she thought, cursing her stupidity. _I should have stayed and worked late. God knows I'll never want for work at headquarters. Now I'll bet he'll check the logs and realize I was lying to him._

_**(Oh…that's bad, isn't it?)**_

_Yes, that's bad,_ Ritsuko confirmed grimly.

_**(Maybe we should kill him before he can check the logs.)**_ The scarab suggested hopefully.

_For the last time, we're not killing Gendo,_ Ritsuko responded wearily, even as she tried to calculate how much this strategic blunder would hurt her.

That Gendo would check the logs and discover that the chairperson of Project-E hadn't worked late as she said she would was almost a given, Ritsuko felt. That was just the kind of person he was. Meticulous, detail-oriented, and paranoid.

The real question was what his response would be. Would he believe that she was just losing interest in him, or would he start worrying that she might be scheming against him?

If it was the latter—and knowing Gendo, there was a very real chance that it would be—she'd need to be _extremely_ careful in the future, because he'd be paying close attention to her, looking for any sure signs of treachery.

_Wonderful. I need this,_ she thought to herself. _And all because I didn't stay at the office late for once._

Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done about it now. Even if she went back to headquarters, the logs would still show that she had been off the clock for a while. And as there were paper backups printed out, not even she could change the records.

"I wonder if Green Lantern ever has to deal with this sort of crap," she muttered as she opened the door to her home and walked inside.

Putting the issue aside for the moment, Ritsuko went to her kitchen and quickly prepared an early dinner for herself. The scarab chided her about the lack of variety in her diet as she ate. She ignored it, then went about the task of cleaning the dishes once she was done.

"So, it looks like my evening's free, for once," Ritsuko observed once she was done, then she smirked slightly. "Think the city can take another sighting of the Blue Beetle?"

The scarab didn't even bother responding with words. Ritsuko felt a blast of excitement coming from it, and she suddenly realized that she was wearing the armor. The scarab had put her in it so quickly she hadn't even noticed the transition.

"Now, unfortunately, it's still light out, so I can't just fly out my window and expect no one to notice," she said. "You have anything that could fix that problem?"

Ritsuko could feel that the scarab was a little annoyed at her for even feeling the need to ask the question. However, its irritation was quickly swept away as it realized that its host was presenting it with an opportunity to show off what it could do.

_**(Altering vibrational frequency.)**_ The scarab announced.

Ritsuko, or the Blue Beetle as she supposed she was now known as when she was in the armor, was aware of a strange tingling sensation sweeping over her body. However, it quickly ended, and when she looked down at her hands, she saw that they looked unchanged and still entirely visible.

"Hey, I can still see myself," she said.

_**(Yes, **_**you**_** can still see yourself.)**_ The scarab said.

The Blue Beetle blinked. "What did you do?" she demanded.

_**(I told you, I altered our vibrational frequency.)**_ The scarab said. _**(We're now slightly out of phase with this dimension, which means that no one who's normal can see us, hear us, or touch us.)**_

"Okay…that's extremely cool," Blue Beetle admitted. "Thanks."

_**(Welcome.)**_ The scarab replied cheerfully.

"All right, let's get out of here," Blue Beetle said, commanding the dragonfly-like wings to emerge from her back with a thought.

She briefly attempted to open one of her windows, but her hands ghosted through them as if they were smoke. For a very brief moment, the problem of how to get outside befuddled her, then she realized the solution and felt like smacking herself. Ignoring the amusement she could sense from the scarab, Blue Beetle stepped right through the wall of her home and outside.

Once outside, the Beetle took to the air, feeling her pulse quicken pleasantly with the excitement of flight. _I've missed this,_ she realized, luxuriating in the feeling of total freedom.

Blue Beetle didn't allow herself to do nothing but enjoy the moment for long, however. If Gendo got seriously paranoid after viewing the day's duty logs, this might be the last time she'd be able to do this for a while, at least without having to exercise extreme caution.

And she had things she wanted to accomplish.

"Wish I knew where I could find some kind of situation that requires a superwoman's assistance," she muttered aloud.

_**(I can pick up the radio transmissions being used by the city's emergency services, if we shift back into phase.)**_ The scarab offered.

"Go ahead," Blue Beetle said. "It's not like we're still on my front porch."

She felt that strange tingling sensation again, and moments later, the scarab began to pipe radio broadcasts right into her ears through the helmet of her armor.

"Pursuing speeding car on…"

"Suspicious looking individual…"

"Possible instance of…"

The Blue Beetle grimaced and, without immediately realizing she was doing it, shut off the radio feeds with a mental command. "Okay, I can't listen to all those transmissions at once and actually make sense of them," she said. "Plus, I need something a little more urgent than jay-walking."

_**(I'll see if I can filter out the excess for you.)**_ The scarab said, and a moment later, only one message was conveyed to Blue Beetle's ears.

"Calling all available units, there is a massive fire at the Yamagata apartment complex. All available fire units please respond."

"That'll do for a start," Blue Beetle decided. "Now if only I knew where the Yamagata apartment complex was." She added with a small grin.

The scarab was quick to leap to the challenge. _**(Establishing connection to GPS satellite network…)**_ It announced.

A map suddenly appeared before her eyes, showing her the location of both her destination and herself.

"Thanks," she said, setting off in the direction of the building.

In seconds, Blue Beetle soon located the facility in question, thanks mostly to the column of black smoke that was rising up from it.

_Guess I didn't need to make the scarab bother with the GPS, after all,_ she thought as she flew closer, dismissing the map on her HUD with a thought.

The apartment complex was composed of several short, squat builds, nearly all of which were completely ablaze with flames. Several fire trucks were present, and one of them was spraying the fire with a steady stream of water from its hose, but in the face of the inferno, these efforts seemed pretty pathetic.

"You have any fire extinguisher guns or anything?" she asked as looked down at the burning buildings.

_**(Yes, but I can't put out that fire.)**_ The scarab answered. _**(…not without totally destroying the buildings in the process, anyway.)**_

"Yeah, we don't want to do that," Blue Beetle replied, "so let's focus on getting anybody trapped inside out of there, okay?"

_**(Right.)**_ The scarab agreed gamely. _**(I'm picking up several human bio-signatures from inside.)**_

Blue Beetle blinked in surprise as the scarab overlaid several glowing blue dots on her HUD, showing her the location of the people trapped inside. She hadn't expected for a moment that it would be able to lead her to the people who needed her help, since the fire would have obviously rendered any sort of thermal imagining ineffective. Apparently, the scarab wasn't anywhere near exhausting its supply of tricks.

Picking out a dot that was all alone, Blue Beetle quickly began to fly toward the apartment complex, doing her best to avoid all the smoke as she did so. Picking a window that didn't have flames leaping out of it, she entered the building, finding it stifling inside despite the lack of any fire in immediate sight.

_**(Cooling system online.)**_ The scarab announced, and immediately the temperature inside the armor dropped several degrees, to the Blue Beetle's relief.

Running through the building as quickly as she dared, she quickly encountered the fire, but she ran through the flames, heedless of the heat and smoke. Reaching to door to the apartment where the person she intended to save was located, she wasted no time in kicking it with her foot.

The door was metal, not wood, but Blue Beetle had superhuman strength behind her. The door crumpled like it was made out of tin foil, allowing her entry.

"Hello?" she shouted as she walked inside. "Hello?"

A low groan answered her, and Blue Beetle went running to the far side of the apartment, keeping herself hunched down so as not to breath in any more of the smoke that hung thick in the air.

_After so long without a cigarette, you'd almost think I'd be enjoying this, actually,_ she mused with a small grin.

She soon came upon a very old man who was sitting in an overstuff easy chair at the back of the room. Judging by the tubes in his nose that were connected to a small oxygen tank he held in his lap, as well as the folded up wheelchair that sat in a corner of the room, it was obvious that the man couldn't hope to escape the burning building under his own power.

"Are you all right, sir?" she asked.

"Holy crap," the old man blurted out, totally ignoring her question, "you're the Blue Beetle!"

She was taken aback for a moment, shocked that she'd apparently gained so much notoriety already.

Then she saw the stack of _Tokyo Tattler_s sitting on a small table next to the man's chair, including the most recent issue, and she was a little less blown away by her newfound fame.

"I'm going to get you out of here," she told the man. "Just, uh, stay calm."

_**(You have no idea what you're supposed to say while doing this superhero thing, do you?)**_ The scarab asked dryly. If it had had a face, it would have been trying not to smirk.

_Do I seem like someone who reads comic books?_ Blue Beetle asked.

_**(Yes.)**_ The scarab replied, even though it could see into her mind and knew full well that she did not.

Ignoring the chunk of mysterious alien hardware, Blue Beetle carefully picked up the old man, making sure not to drop his oxygen tank. Once she was certain she had a good hold on him, she shifted him so she could carry him with one arm.

The strength she possessed while in the armor impressed her; it was well within the superhuman range. Though had she time to reflect upon it, the Blue Beetle would have realized that she probably could have carried the wizened old man even without the armor.

With a thought, she commanded the metal covering her free hand to shift and change into a fire retardant gun, aware that getting out with a passenger was going to be harder than getting in alone had been.

Moving as quickly as she dared, Blue Beetle headed toward the nearest window, squirting the fire suppressant whenever necessary. To her relief, she soon managed to get to a window. Gingerly getting herself and her passenger through it, she summoned the wings from the back of her armor, and soon she was heading toward an ambulance in the cluster of emergency vehicles that had gathered outside.

As she flew down, people started to point up at the woman in the blue and black armor. Several took pictures with cell phone cameras, and still more began to chatter softly amongst themselves, their attention momentarily taken away from the fire.

_Looks like everything's going according to plan so far,_ Blue Beetle thought.

Landing right behind the ambulance, the Blue Beetle gently placed the old man she'd rescued from the building down on a waiting gurney, though the man indignantly waved off the attentions of the EMTs, insisting he was fine.  
The small crowd of onlookers appeared as though they wanted nothing more than to swamp her and barrage her with questions and requests for autographs. However, they all held back, perhaps fearful of upsetting the old man or just unwilling to get in the way of the various emergency service personnel present.

A cop who happened to be on the scene, however, was not so timid. "Who are you?" he asked, sounding more stunned than anything.

The old man answered for her before she could. "That's the Blue Beetle!" he exclaimed. "Geeze, what's wrong with you kids today? Don't you read the paper anymore?"

Blue Beetle smirked, thinking that referring to a rag like the _Tokyo Tattler_ was exaggerating, at best.

"That's what they call me," Blue Beetle said to the cop, smiling in as friendly a manner as she could. "Now, if you'll excuse me…"

With that, she took off, heading for the burning buildings again, very conscious of the several camera flashes that followed her off.

* * *

Naru coughed, the thick smoke bringing tears to her eyes as she sat, curled into a ball in the corner.

"It's okay, Tokio," the little girl told the doll she held clutched to her chest. "We'll be okay."

The little girl wished she was certain that she was telling her doll the truth, but the fact of the matter was that she just wasn't sure. The fire was all over now, and she couldn't hear the sounds of firemen approaching.

"Hey!" she heard someone shout all of a sudden. "Hello?"

"Here!" Naru yelled. "I'm here! Please, come and—" a fit of coughing overtook her at that moment, and she couldn't continue.

Fortunately, whoever it was had obviously heard her. Naru could hear approaching footsteps over the crackling of the flames, and she looked up hopefully. When her would-be rescuer came into view, the little girl's eyes widened.

It was no firefighter coming to save her. Instead, the person approaching her was a figure in blue and black armor unlike anything she'd ever seen before. Horn-like prongs came up from somewhere on her back, and the lenses covering her eyes blazed red in the firelight.

Naru screamed, trying to back up further into her corner, even though that was impossible.

"Kid! Kid! It's all right!" the armored woman shouted. "I'm here to save you, not hurt you! I'm a…superwoman."

That changed _everything_ so far as the little girl was concerned. "Like the Green Lantern?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah, exactly the Green Lantern," the woman said, though she didn't seem very pleased by the comparison. "I'm the Blue Beetle."

"Why did you name yourself after a—look out!" Naru shouted, pointing at the ceiling.

The Blue Beetle looked up, but all that did was let her see what was coming. A pile of burning debris crashed down on top of her, and she collapsed beneath its weight. Naru put her hands over her mouth, horrified.

_Ohmigosh! Did she…? Is she…?_ Naru thought.

Naru suddenly realized that the Blue Beetle probably wouldn't have been standing there at that moment if she hadn't been questioning the new superwoman. For a brief moment, she wondered if she could be blamed for the death of the Blue Beetle.

That moment was cut short as the Blue Beetle suddenly burst from the pile of burning debris with a cry, sending bits of flaming refuse flying everywhere. Amazingly, she looked not one bit hurt by what she'd just endured.

"I have to get you out of here," Blue Beetle said. "Now!"

"Okay," Naru agreed immediately.

* * *

_**(You know, there was no reason to be so afraid when that stuff fell down on top of you back there.)**_ The scarab chided Blue Beetle as they were flying away from the apartment complex, some time later.

"It was on fire," she replied flatly.

_**(Oh please, that armor can protect you from the temperature extremes of outer space. You think a little fire would overwhelm the cooling systems?)**_ The scarab asked.

"Look, if flaming chunks of wood, plaster, and rock are falling down toward me, I'm going to be scared. That's just the way humans are, so you might as well get used to it," Blue Beetle grumbled.

Though everything had gone well back at the burning apartments, the scarab's reaction to her very natural response to seeing _burning debris_ falling toward her was quickly getting under her skin.

She decided that since she had to make the most of this day, she might as well do the one thing she was certain would distract the scarab.

"So, do you think you can find another situation that requires the Blue Beetle's attention?" she asked.

She could feel the scarab's excitement at the prospect of more action that day. _**(There's a hostage situation down at Yoshimata Tower.)**_

"Point me the way," Blue Beetle said.

The scarab obliged, a new map popping up on her HUD. Blue Beetle changed her course through the air.

In mere moments, the skyscraper came into view. It was a towering spire covered in black glass. The setting sun was perfectly reflected off the side of the building, looking like a great, bloody eye.

Even from her viewpoint up in the air, the Blue Beetle could clearly see the police cars that surrounded the tall building, their red and blue lights flashing. This was definitely the place all right.

She didn't even need to ask the scarab for help this time. With a thought, Blue Beetle activated her armor's thermal imaging, and he could see several glowing forms inside the skyscraper.

_Hmm, looks like the police have already evacuated the building,_ she observed, seeing that the skyscraper was mostly empty. _That should make this a little easier._

_**(I'm guessing those guys are the hostages.)**_ The scarab said, giving her a mental nudge to indicate a cluster of people crammed inside one room.

_Probably,_ Blue Beetle replied, _but I'm not sure they're the only…ah, see?_

She indicated a pair of people who were standing very close to each other. They were near one of the windows.

_Some of the bad guys are using human shields,_ she said.

_**(Charming.)**_ The scarab said. _**(Which one do we kill first?)**_

_No killing!_ She snapped.

_**(Not even these guys?!)**_ The scarab asked incredulously. Then with the mental equivalent of a sigh said, _**(Fine.)**_

_All right, now listen, this has to go just right. If hostages get killed, it'll go against everything I'm trying to do,_ Blue Beetle said. _I'm going to need your help to make sure this works, but you _have_ to follow the plan._

_**(Okay, okay.)**_ The scarab replied. _**(What's the plan?)**_

_You can shift us out of phase with the rest of reality again, right?_ She began.

* * *

Ichigo didn't like what he was seeing. The place was totally surrounded by police, and it didn't look like they were going to be going anywhere anytime soon. The boss had said again and again that they would use the hostages to force the authorities to give them a helicopter, but really, when was the last time anyone had heard of that sort of thing actually working?

_I always knew this was a bad idea. Why the hell did I agree to this job?_ He wondered to himself.

He paused, then…

_Oh, right, the gambling debts,_ he remembered, thinking of the way his bookie had been breathing down his neck for days now. If he didn't pay up in cash soon, Ichigo had no doubt that his lenders would come and collect a pound of flesh from him.

_Wonder if everybody else on this job needs money so bad,_ he wondered, glancing at one of his colleagues, Akito, who had a relatively small man as a hostage.

_Well, I'm in it now, so there's no point in bitching about it,_ Ichigo finally decided.

"H-Hey," his hostage, a tall but thin woman spoke up timidly, "I _really_ have to go to the bathroom, so—"

"Hold it," Ichigo growled.

"P-Please, I—"

She was cut off again, this time by a cry from Akito. Ichigo's head snapped to the side, to see one of his partners in crime just before his limp form tumbled to the floor. He had no idea what had just happened, but he instantly knew one thing: the little runt of a man that Akito had been using as a hostage wasn't responsible. The wimp looked as shocked and confused as Ichigo felt.

Before he could even process what he was seeing before him, there was an electric crackle from his side. He turned—

—and found himself staring at a woman in blue and black full-body armor. At the end of one of her arms was an implausible but very nasty looking gun. The woman did not look pleased.

He tried to raise his gun and point it as his hostage's head, but the blue chick was in action before he'd even managed to take in what was happening before him. That weird looking weapon at the end of her arm discharged, firing a thin blast of blue energy at him.

And then Ichigo's world went black.

* * *

"Listen, getting a hold of a helicopter isn't a simple process. We can't just come up with one at the drop of a hat."

Akira smirked as he put his feet up on the desk of some hotshot executive or another. "You know, I'd _almost_ believe that, if it wasn't for the helicopters you had circling overhead until I started asking for one," he said.

"That's different. They—"

"Spare me," Akira said. "I want a fully fueled helicopter landing on the roof in an hour, or I'll start executing hostages, one every fifteen minutes."

"That's not—"

"I think I may start with the owner of this building," Akira said. "He owns a couple of choppers, doesn't he? Maybe his people could send one to prevent him from getting shot."

"Now wait a—"

"Good day, sir," Akira said, hanging up the phone. "That should get us what we need."

No sooner had he said this, however, than did one of his underlings enter the office he'd commandeered.

"We've got trouble, boss," the man said breathlessly, as though he'd been in a great rush. "All the boys are going silent. We don't know what's happening. I can't raise anybody!" he said, frantically waving around a walkie-talkie.

Akira's eyes widened. It couldn't be the cops; they wouldn't dare make a move while there were so many hostages trapped in the building.

…would they?

Not bothering to wonder about it any longer, he quickly got up and took his sidearm from its holster. "Come on," he ordered. "We have to check on the other hostages."

He almost made it to the door before a woman in blue and black appeared out of thin air in front of him.

* * *

"Well, I'd say that went all right," Blue Beetle commented as she flew off, but not before releasing the hostages who'd been trapped inside that little room, making sure they knew who'd saved them.

_**(That was awesome!)**_ The scarab said. _**(Can we do it again?)**_

Blue Beetle smiled beneath her armor. "Not that exactly, but I expect we'll be doing a quite a lot of heroics before I'm done."

_**(Nice.)**_ The scarab said. _**(Now, not that I'm complaining, but what's the point of all of this? I know you this is part of some kind of plan, and I can see it in your head…but I can't really understand it.)**_

"Fair enough," Blue Beetle said. "You see, the problem is that while there are a lot of ways to bring Gendo and SEELE's little house of cards tumbling down, but a lot of those ways would result in the Angels destroying the world. Or at least, a number of people dying."

_**(And you think you found a way to stop the bad guys without any of that?)**_ The scarab asked, a tad skeptically.

"Yes," Blue Beetle answered. "I'm going to make Ikari's and SEELE's worst nightmare come true. I'm going to get the UN to de-fund NERV."

There was a brief pause. Then the scarab spoke up again. _**(So how does Shinji come into that?)**_

She frowned. "He doesn't."

_**(But I thought that trying to help him was the plan.)**_ The scarab said, obviously confused.

"That's the backup plan," Blue Beetle said. "If spending so much time around Gendo has taught me anything, it's that you should always have as many backup plans as possible when trying to manipulate events."

The scarab didn't make a reply, leaving her alone with her thoughts. On a whim, she began to fly toward the apartment building that Misato, and Shinji, called home, making sure to stay high enough in the air that the likelihood of anyone seeing her was minimal. And even if someone did spot her, it would be impossible to tell what she was looking down at.

"I really should be focusing on Ayanami, not Shinji," Blue Beetle mused aloud. "Gendo values her place in the scenario more."

_**(Then why aren't you doing anything with her?)**_ The scarab asked.

"I don't like her," Blue Beetle answered darkly. "She's always taken everything I ever cared about, and she does it just by…existing."

She didn't explain further; she didn't need to. The scarab could see in her mind what she was talking about. First, a dark day in Ritsuko's memory. Watching as a tiny blue haired girl confronts a brunette in a white lab coat. The girl says something to the woman, but in her mind, the child's lips move soundlessly; Ritsuko never heard what she said. However, it must have been bad, because the woman goes berserk, grabbing the child by the throat and squeezing until there is a meaty snap. Then…only once the deed was done, the brunette seems to realize what she had done. Ritsuko can only watch, paralyzed with horror, as the woman throws herself off the tier of the command center she was on, landing on the protective casing of one of the MAGI. There is a sickening crunch as her skull hits it and cracks.

Rei Ayanami came back from that. Naoko Akagi, her mother, did not.

Then the scarab saw a series of memories, which collectively held almost as much significance in the blonde's mind. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of instances when Gendo had brushed her off in favor of Rei, had shown that his current lover was secondary to the living ghost of his wife.

_**(Wait a minute.)**_ The scarab said. _**(You don't even **_**like**_** that man. Why did you mate with him for so long? And why does it matter that he cares for Ayanami more than you?)**_

"Well, after Mother died, he was really the only one that comforted me," Blue Beetle said, remembering a time when Gendo hadn't been quite as cold as he was now, or at least, a time when he'd acted less cold than he was now. "Everyone else, well, they just looked at the psycho's daughter funny for a very long time. He was my rock, and I suppose I was feeling lonely. No other man ever really gave me that kind of attention before. As for why the way he still favors Rei irritates me even now, well, I never said that human emotions were logical."

_**(Your species is very strange sometimes.)**_ The scarab commented softly.

"No argument here," Blue Beetle responded. "But it's not like Shinji doesn't deserve some attention. He's been through so much, and he's trying so hard to earn something that—"

_**(We've got a problem.)**_ The scarab suddenly interrupted her.

Blue Beetle didn't even have to ask what that problem was. Only one thing could incite the level of panic that she could feel coming from the scarab.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," she said.

* * *

It was a perfectly ordinary evening in the Katsuragi household. Shinji was cleaning up after dinner, Asuka was parked in front of the television, and Misato was at the kitchen table, sipping at her fourth beer of the evening. The whole thing was the picture of normalcy, the image of the domestic, and Misato was feeling pretty pleased with herself for providing these two children with this island of stability in the insane lives fate had foisted upon them.

She was about to reward herself by taking another swig of her beer when an increasingly familiar pain hit.

It came all at once, like before. One minute she was fine, and the next minute she felt like she had the migraine from hell. She could practically _see_ the fist that had wrapped its fingers around her brain, trying to squeeze it to jelly.

And then there was her ring. It felt like it was vibrating, almost as if it was alive. It wasn't; it was neither alive nor was it moving, but that it felt so much like it was made Misato certain there was no chance her sudden migraine was normal.

That…thing was in the area. It might even be after her charges.

"Misato?" Shinji's voice somehow managed to cut through the pain and the sudden spike of rage she was feeling.

"Are you all right?" Asuka added.

Misato suddenly realized that she had started clutching at her head without even realizing that she was doing it. Trying her best to ignore the pain, she moved her hand away and forced a smile for the two teenagers.

"I'm fine, I just…remembered that there's something I need to do at headquarters," she said.

"This late?" Shinji asked. "Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"Nope," Misato said, heaving a gusty sigh for effect as she got up from her chair. "I need to head there right now. Don't worry, though. I shouldn't be gone long. I hope." She added.

"Don't you want to change first?" Asuka asked, gesturing to Misato's attire, which consisted of a tank top and her favorite denim shorts.

Misato, who was already on her way out the door, barely bothered to mutter something in response to the Second Child's query, so driven was she by her ring. The moment the door had slid shut behind her, she quickly looked about to make sure that no one was watching her, then she willed the uniform of the Green Lantern Corps to appear over her form. Once she had assumed her alter ego, she flew into the air.

"Ring," she said, "locate the alien."

* * *

_**(The Lantern is coming for us!)**_ The scarab exclaimed, fear lancing its mental voice. _**(We should get out of here. I can transport us back into the—)**_

"We are _not_ retreating into the Bleed again," Blue Beetle said sternly. "In fact, we're not going to be running away from the Green Lantern at all. I can't hope to do what I need to do if I constantly have to worry about her attacking me out of nowhere."

_**(So we're fighting then?)**_ The scarab asked, sounding fearful at the prospect. It was the first time she'd ever heard it display anything but glee at the prospect of getting involved with some mayhem and violence.

"Yes," she said firmly.

_**(I hope you know what you're doing.)**_ The scarab said as they both saw a pinprick of green light rapidly approaching from below them.

"Me, too," Blue Beetle said. "Here's the plan…"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** A lot of things to say in this note, so strap yourself in for the long haul.

First, the usual ramblings. The scenes where Ritsuko goes out hero-ing hit me as a tad bit excessive in quantity here, but they were such a pain to write that I just couldn't bring myself to delete them. Plus, I wanted to show that Ritsuko's trying to gain a whole lot of superhero cred very quickly. Readers of the various other SOE stories out there can probably figure out how this works into Ritsuko's plan to get the UN to cut NERV's funds. For the rest of you, it'll become more clear as the story goes along. The Blue Beetle and Green Lantern were actually supposed to have their second fight this chapter, but it just seemed appropriate to end it here. Next chapter, the two of them will settle things once and for all.

Next up, a general announcement about the SOE2 series. Much like in the original SOE series, every story is its own continuity. Some of the super ladies may make an appearance in fics other than their own, however, as you've seen here.

Now, about the reaction Blue Beetle scarab and the Green Lantern ring have to each other. None of my reviewers seem to know the reasons behind this, but rest assured, it will eventually be explained.

Moving along, we reach the all important issue of shipping. I've been considering having the pairing be one-sided, with Shinji basically developing a huge crush on Ritsuko. Normally, I wouldn't even suggest this (though I didn't say anything at the time, I have to admit I was kind of annoyed when orionpax09 floated the idea of not having the Shinji/Asuka pairing in "Vengeful Devil"), but a few of my reviewers have put the idea forward. And to be honest, I always found Shinji/Ritsuko to be a pretty damn weird pairing. Even if you ignore the age gap entirely, there's still the fact that she more or less treated all the pilots like components or machines for the length of the series and she did so quite consistently (in one early episode, she mentions that it's Misato's job to "maintain" Shinji). And of course, she was also sleeping with Gendo. Speaking for myself, I have to say I'd find the idea of having a romantic relationship with an ex-girlfriend of my father's to be more than a little unnerving.

Still, I knew when I started the SOE2 series that it would involve me writing some things I wouldn't otherwise. I wouldn't want to have a one-sided pairing here unless you, dear readers, want that. So tell what you think on this issue, and if it turns out that the bulk of you want a full fledged Shinji/Ritsuko pairing, then I shall write it and do my best to do it well despite my personal opinion on the matter.

**Cevgar**, you're right, curves and excessive athleticism are mutually exclusive…in real life. Among comic books super heroines, though, it's pretty much the norm. And these were always meant to be as much comic book stories as they are Eva stories, which means an element of comic book shamelessness is there. I'm not exactly proud of it, but, well, there it is.

Also, I will do my best to write Gendo as very competent, because it's never good to have a moron for a villain. However, I personally think the issue of how smart Gendo actually is really is open for debate. On the one hand, it is true that given what his job entails, he really should be frightening competent. On the other hand…he did some stupid crap in the series, and the only reason he never paid for it was because it wasn't yet time for the pilots' character shields to fail spectacularly. For instance, he pretty much knew an Angel would attack the fleet transporting Unit Two and Asuka to Japan, so he ensures that Shinji would be there, presumably to back up Asuka and/or pilot in her place if she choked under pressure. It would have been a _much_ more sensible precaution if he'd just had Unit Two equipped for fighting underwater instead. The way he did it, he easily could have lost two-thirds of NERV's pilots and one-third of its active Evangelions. All the Sixth Angel had to do was sever Unit Two's umbilical cable and Gendo would've been completely boned.

On the whole Third Impact issue, well, the series is so damn vague on what exactly the various factions involved (Gendo, Yui, SEELE) actually wanted to happen that I usually don't stray from fanon on the issue. I get fewer headaches that way than when I try and figure the whole thing out.

Oh, and sorry you don't like the scarab. In the comic book, usually when it talks some "alien" text is put up on the panel, and the scarab's host, who can understand it, responds. I couldn't really get away with that in this format, so I tried to extrapolate what the scarab's personality was like from the hints in the book.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers. Now, enough of my (unusually excessive) rambling. Time for a little fun.

* * *

Omake

Wrong Tape

_I can't believe I'm going to get to hear my mother's voice,_ Shinji thought excitedly as he returned to the apartment he called home.

Quickly making his way to his room, he slid the door shut, put down his backpack, and took out his SDAT player. Placing one of the tapes Ritsuko had given him into it, he put in his ear buds and pressed play.

Heavy breathing was the first thing he heard on the tape, which caused Shinji to frown. Why would anyone record that?

"Hello, stud," a female voice said, causing Shinji's eyes to widen.

It wasn't the voice of his mother (and thank goodness for _that_). Shinji knew this even though he didn't know what his mother's voice sounded like, because he could identify the voice on the tape, though he'd never heard it speaking in such a…sultry tone before.

The person who'd made this tape was Ritsuko Akagi.

"Do you know what I'm going to do to you the next time we get together?" the blonde's voice purred into his ear.

_I shouldn't be listening to this,_ Shinji thought. _Ritsuko obviously didn't mean to give this to me. It's wrong, and—_

And then Ritsuko started detailing _exactly_ what she intended to do to "him" and suddenly matters of propriety seemed less important to the Third Child.

_Is that even physically possible?_ He wondered after the blonde had detailed a particularly lurid bedroom maneuver.

He wasn't at all sure, but he thought that even if it wasn't, it would be a lot of fun trying it.

"Oh, yes," Ritsuko's voice cooed into Shinji's ears, "we're going to be enjoying ourselves a lot with that, but we still won't be finished, will we, Gendo?"

The blood drained from Shinji's face at the mention of _this_ name. Where a moment ago he had been picturing _himself _doing all the things Ritsuko was describing with her, now he was picturing…someone _else_ with her.

In bed.

Naked.

The Third Child threw his head back and released a scream that came from the depths of his very soul.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Four: **The Blue and the Green

Flying through the air, Ritsuko Akagi—now also known as the Blue Beetle—realized that she had an incredible talent for getting herself into bad situations.

First, she'd ended up working alongside her mother, with whom she didn't exactly have the best relationship in the world. Then, after her mother had committed suicide, she'd started up a loveless and less than healthy relationship with the man her mother had been sleeping with. _Then_, she'd happened upon some bizarre piece of alien hardware, which had begun a symbiotic relationship with her and occasionally seized control of her body for brief moments.

And now, as the _coup de grâce_, she had attracted the attention of the Green Lantern while trying to use the power that piece of alien hardware had given her for good, and the emerald superwoman was probably seeing red.

_Scarab, we have to get away from the city before we can engage the Green Lantern, _she told it, daring to look back at the point of jade light which was streaking after her far too quickly for comfort. _We need to get to the mountains—now. I don't suppose this thing has afterburners or something?_

While normally the scarab might have made some smart remark in response to such a query, or at least have let slip the mental equivalent of a smirk, with the Green Lantern on their tail it was all business. A pair of jets sprouted from the bottoms of Blue Beetle's boots, and suddenly she was rocketing through the air at nearly mach one.

Blue Beetle let out a yelp of fright at the abrupt explosion of speed, and if the scarab hadn't assumed control of their flight, she would have sent them out of control with the panicked flailing her body wanted to do.

_**(I thought you said you wanted to go faster.) **_The scarab said.

_Sorry, _Blue Beetle responded sheepishly, _I just wasn't expecting to go _this_ fast._

The scarab just let out a sort of mental grunt in response, and Blue Beetle realized that it was trying to cover up its acute fear behind irritation—not that it could succeed in such an endeavor; it couldn't hide its true emotions from her.

_Almost to the mountains,_ she thought, knowing that the true trial would begin once she reached a place that was safe for her and her opponent to fight.

A lance of jade light suddenly cut through the air from above her, and Blue Beetle was barely able to see it and get out of the way before it sliced through her. She looked back with wide eyes, amazed to see that Green Lantern was only a very short distance behind her, even with how quickly she'd been moving.

Not for the first time since she'd decided to fight the Green Lantern rather than flee from her, Blue Beetle wondered if she wasn't biting off a lot more than she could chew.

Then her resolve hardened; she wouldn't be able to do any good at all if she constantly had to worry about Green Lantern showing up and trying to kill her for no good reason.

_You started this, but I'm going to finish it, Lantern,_ Blue Beetle thought. _Prepare to have your glowing green ass handed to you!_

Clutching onto that glowing ember of perfect rage and defiance like it was a talisman, Blue Beetle whipped around to face her enemy, and silently told the scarab what she wanted, not bothering to put her thoughts into the form of mere, clunky words.

The armor covering Blue Beetle's hands transformed into a pair of wicked looked energy weapons, but that wasn't all she brought to bear. Several multi-jointed, insectoid arms sprouted from the armor on her back, each one ending in another weapons emitter. Now bristling with guns, she took aim at Green Lantern.

_Fire!_ Blue Beetle commanded.

Over two dozen beams of electric blue light erupted from the various weapons the Beetle and the scarab had called into being, all of them merging into a single, radiant column of glowing destruction as they shot toward the green gladiator. The Lantern had just enough time to encase herself in a bubble of emerald light before the beam hit her like a battering ram.

For a moment that stretched out into infinity as Blue Beetle's attack clashed with Green Lantern's protective field, there was a second sun in the sky over the mountains. Even with the scarab's attempts to filter out the excess light, Blue Beetle found that she couldn't look and had to close her eyes.

A few seconds later, a series of loud, crashing sounds met Blue Beetle's ears, accompanied by a low, deep rumbling. Driven by curiosity, she opened her eyes a crack, careful not to look directly at Green Lantern. She gasped at what she saw.

Part of her energy attack had been deflected and had crashed into the mountains, and what looked like thousands of tons of solid rock had been dislodged and were now tumbling down the mountainside. Far beneath her, the ground was trembling.

_My god,_ she thought, awed and more than a little scared by the sheer destructive force she'd just unleashed. _It's a good thing I thought to get away from the city before having this fight!_

The guns on her armor finally ceased their assault, and the blinding corona of light quickly faded. Blinking away spots, Blue Beetle ordered the armor to put away the extra guns and looked hopefully at where Green Lantern had been; surely not even the luminous superwoman could have withstood _that_ attack. It was just impossible. No one could have done it.

But Green Lantern had. Blue Beetle could see the jade champion tumbling downwards, seemingly unconscious but still surrounded by a halo of emerald light. As she continued to watch, the other superwoman appeared to come back to her senses, halting her descent.

Then Green Lantern began to flying upwards, right toward her.

_**(Uh-oh.)**_ The scarab commented.

Blue Beetle didn't reply. She was caught in the grip of terror and surprise and could only watch as her enemy's fingers balled up into a fist, emerald light bursting forth from the Lantern's ring.

Fortunately, the scarab was quicker on the draw in such straits than she was, and the beetle wing shaped shields that had already seen so much use burst into existence, ready to stand against any blast of energy.

Unfortunately for Blue Beetle, Green Lantern didn't opt for a simple beam attack. Instead, the energy she'd unleashed took on the shape of a giant, green boxing glove. The ring construct crashed against Blue Beetle's shield, and the armored heroine went tumbling through the air, letting out a loud "ooph!" from the force of the impact.

Green Lantern didn't give her time to recover. Well before Blue Beetle could reorient herself, a great jade hand wrapped its fingers around her, pinning her arms to her sides.

"Who are you?" Green Lantern demanded, bringing Blue Beetle up to face her. "What's your plan?"

The insectoid superwoman blinked beneath her helmet, feeling some strange flicker of recognition; the other superwoman's voice sounded familiar. She wanted to tell the scarab to stop throwing warning messages and various bits of information onto her HUD so she could see Green Lantern clearly.

Then the glowing hand that encircled her entire torso began to squeeze her harder, and all thoughts of unraveling the mystery were forgotten as pain shot through her.

"Talk!" Green Lantern barked. "What are you planning?"

"Well first," Blue Beetle spoke through gritted teeth, "I thought I'd deal with you."

The guns at the end of her arms quickly shifted into a pair of circular saw-like weapons and the blades began to spin with a loud whirring sound. They rapidly started slicing through the green hand, which quickly came apart, changing into a green smoke that quickly dissipated to nothing.

The armor over Blue Beetle's hands finally reverted to normal, and she unleashed a burst of crackling energy from the emitters at her fingertips that sent Green Lantern reeling.

But not for long, though. Almost immediately regaining command of herself, Green Lantern fired a punch at her enemy, the white gloved fist solidly impacting the side of Blue Beetle's face.

_Damn, she's pretty strong,_ Blue Beetle thought dazedly, even as she chastised herself for not realizing that if her enemy could survive her initial assault without a scratch, she'd be able to shrug off the little attack she'd just administered with no difficulty.

She suddenly felt something wrap itself around her ankle and looked down. A glowing green lasso was tied to her leg.

"Crap," she said, just before a sharp tug on the luminous rope sent her careening toward the ground.

_Help me!_ She mentally screamed at the scarab as the solid rock of a nearby mountain rapidly came closer and closer.

_**(I'm trying!)**_ It responded, and she could feel it struggling to get control of their descent and stop it.

Unfortunately, it was having no success so far. Blue Beetle squeezed her eyes shut, but then visions of herself smashing against the mountainside began to flash through her eyes. Grey stone filled her field of vision completely, and she realized that she was going to die.

And here she'd foolishly thought she could save the world.

Blue Beetle could hear the scarab screaming inside her mind as it exerted one last, desperate effort, even as she gave in to the inevitability of her demise.

And suddenly, she came to a halt, not twenty feet away from the mountain she was certain she was about to crash into.

There was a moment of perfect silence.

"I'm alive," Blue Beetle finally spoke in a tone of perfect surprise.

_**(MOVE!)**_ The scarab bellowed, then, unable to wait for its host to regain her composure, it seized the reigns and sent her flying off at speeds that rivaled those of a bullet leaving the barrel of a gun.

And it was none too soon; a lance of green energy crashed into the ground just below where she'd been, sending pieces of stone flying everywhere.

_Okay, maybe confronting Green Lantern like this wasn't such a good idea,_ Blue Beetle conceded. _Maybe we _should_ retreat to the Bleed now._

_**(Don't be so hasty.) **_The scarab replied. _**(I've managed to analyze Green Lantern's powers…and her weakness.)**_

_She has an Achilles' heel?_ Blue Beetle asked hopefully.

If the scarab had had a face, it would have grinned viciously. Blue Beetle could feel it.

_**(Yellow laser ready.) **_The scarab said as the armor over Blue Beetle's right arm changed into another energy weapon.

"This better work," Blue Beetle said as she took over toward Green Lantern again.

_**(It will.)**_ The scarab assured her, its usual confidence having finally resurfaced.

"Hey, Greenie!" Blue Beetle shouted. "Try _this_ on for size!"

She fired, and a blast of golden light surged forward. Green Lantern projected another shield of emerald light before the bolt of energy had even left the weapon's barrel. However, when she saw the beam that was coming toward her, she sharply moved out of the way, just managing to dodge the attack.

But she didn't move quickly enough to get her hastily created shield out of the way, too, and Blue Beetle saw how her beam went through it without slowing down.

The armored superwoman smiled. _She can't block that like she blocked everything else._

_**(No, she can't.)**_ The scarab spoke up. _**(Green Lanterns are powerless against the color yellow. I…I think I should have remembered that for some reason.)**_

"You figured it out quickly enough," Blue Beetle congratulated her partner, while flying after Green Lantern and unleashing a barrage of yellow energy.

The emerald heroine retreated, the first time she had done so in the face of the Blue Beetle, and retaliated with a volley of green energy blasts, which Beetle avoided easily.

The two continued to trade shots for several moments, and it quickly became clear to Blue Beetle that the confrontation wasn't going to come to any quick end unless one of them figured out a new tactic. They were both excellent shots, but they were both also pretty small targets and damn quick to boot. If neither of them came up with a good idea, the fight would just drag on until one or the other got lucky.

Blue Beetle didn't trust luck; hers had always been lousy.

_Scarab, one of your functions is the ability to project an invisible protective bubble around us, right?_ She asked.

_**(That's right, but it would never stand up to a Green Lantern's power.)**_ The scarab answered.

_I know that,_ she replied. _What I want to know is, does it _have_ to be invisible?_

The scarab immediately caught onto her plan, and she could feel it smile. _**(No.)**_

A second later, a bubble of golden light flared into existence around her. It might have just been Blue Beetle's imagination, but she though she heard Green Lantern gasp as she launched herself at the emerald superwoman, firing blasts of yellow energy as she closed the distance between them.

Somehow, the Green Lantern managed to avoid all the laser blasts, but she couldn't dodge the Blue Beetle. The armored superwoman crashed dead on into the emerald champion, and the two of them went careening toward the ground.

_**(Uh, Ritsuko…)**_

_Keep the protective field at maximum!_ She ordered.

Blue Beetle and Green Lantern crashed into one of the few patches of grass to be found in the mountainous area outside the city, rather than into solid rock, but it was still a violent landing. Both of them let out yelps of pain as they hit the ground and then went bouncing, the two of them finally separating as they went flying in different directions, both of them eventually coming to a stop on the ground.

Blue Beetle groaned loudly as she slowly got up. Even though she was now in possession of a body that was in peak physical shape and had been pulled back from the brink of thirty, she knew there was no way she wasn't going to feel _that_ tomorrow.

_Oh god, why didn't you _stop_ me?_ She asked the scarab as she got to her feet.

_**(You had a pretty firm hold of the steering wheel at the time.)**_ The scarab answered.

Trudging over to her opponent, Blue Beetle saw that Green Lantern was still conscious. However, she looked even more groggy than the insectoid heroine felt, and she had yet to make any effort to get up.

"All right," Blue Beetle said, still surrounded by golden light. "Now, _you're_ going to tell me who you are, what your plan is, and why you're so damned determined to kill me."

Green Lantern looked up at her with a deadly gleam in her piercingly emerald eyes, and Blue Beetle again felt that flicker of recognition, not at the color of those orbs, but at the steely determination within them.

"How about no?" the jade superwoman asked.

Dozens of tendrils of emerald light abruptly shot out from her large ring, each one seizing upon one of the rocks that had been sent tumbling when Blue Beetle's opening attack had caused a landslide. Before the armored superwoman could react, all those rocks were flying directly toward her. The emerald light holding the stone projectiles evaporated as soon as they hit the sphere of yellow light surrounding the Beetle, but momentum kept them going until they struck her.

For an instant that felt like an eternity, Blue Beetle's existence was enveloped by perfect pain as she nearly every inch of her body was struck by a chunk of rock.

She remained standing for a few seconds after the assault, wobbling on her feet. Then she fell limply to the ground, barely clinging on to consciousness any longer. She could feel blood tricking down the side of her head from a gash in her forehead. A pebble pressed into the soft skin of her cheek.

_Wait a minute…my cheek?_ She thought, then realized that she could feel the cool mountain air on her face. Her helmet had been utterly destroyed by the rocks. _Oh, shit._

Nearby, Green Lantern was getting to her feet, doing so with far less obvious pain in her movements than Blue Beetle would have expected. Damn, that woman was tough.

"All right," the Lantern said, "now, you and I are…"

She trailed off, and Blue Beetle moved her eyes to get a glimpse of her foe's face. A look of utter shock and disbelief was written all over Green Lantern's face.

"No way…_Ritsuko?_"

_Oh, wonderful, she knows who I am,_ the blonde thought. _This day just keeps getting better and better._

As she continued to watch wordlessly, Green Lantern retreated away from her prone form by a few paces. Then to her surprise, she took to the air and began to fly away, jade light trailing her as she went.

_**(She let us go.)**_ The scarab said after a few moments. _**(Why did she let us go?)**_

"I have no idea," Blue Beetle said as she somehow managed to sit up. "Hopefully not to go and blab my identity to the media."

She could just see the headline now: **Blue Beetle Unmasked!**

At the moment, however, she was too exhausted and in too much pain to care about that very much.

"Regenerate the armor, scarab," she said quietly. "Let's go home. I think it's time to call it a day."

* * *

As Ritsuko was returning home to collapse onto her bed and into an exhausted, dreamless sleep, Green Lantern was likewise heading back into the city, her mind in turmoil.

Ritsuko. The Blue Beetle, the alien infiltrator that her ring had been so insistently warning her about and telling her to destroy…was her best friend.

"Well, this changes things," she grumbled to herself.

Spotting a convenient rooftop, the luminous superwoman landed lightly, then looked down at her hand, where the ring that gave her all of her stupendous powers sat.

"All right, ring," she said, "you and I are going to have a very long talk."

* * *

As Ritsuko had feared, her muscles were all exceptionally sore and stiff when she reluctantly rolled out of bed the next morning.

"I guess I have to pay the price if I want to play superhero," she grumbled to herself, still half asleep as she stumbled to her feet and stretched hugely.

Her eyes suddenly popped open fully as she abruptly finished waking. Now that she was no longer exhausted and on the verge of collapse, the Green Lantern knowing who she was seemed like a very big problem indeed. The woman could have already exposed her secret identity. For all she knew, Section Two could be on their way to her home at that very moment to attempt to take her into custody.

All aches and pains instantly forgotten, the blonde raced out of her bedroom and to her computer. Booting the machine up, she quickly ventured to a corner of cyberspace she had never expected to visit: the _Tokyo Tattler_'s website.

Her fears were allayed somewhat as she saw that the current top story was not that the Blue Beetle's identity had been revealed. Instead, the most prominent article was about the light show she and Green Lantern had put on with their battle.

"And of course, the _Tattler_ sees a flashy and unexplained phenomenon, so they decide to say that extraterrestrials are responsible," Ritsuko rolled her eyes after quickly skimming the story.

_**(Well, you know, it's not like they're entirely wrong.)**_ The scarab spoke up. _**(Unless, that is, you think I'm terrestrial in origin.)**_

"No," Ritsuko said, "if there's one thing I do feel that I do know about you for sure, it's that you're not from around here."

_**(So, anyway, does this mean we're safe?)**_ The scarab asked. _**(Green Lantern would've told the media who you are already if she wanted to expose your identity, right?)**_

"Maybe," Ritsuko sighed, and suddenly she wanted a cigarette very badly for some reason. "But we can't just assume that. She could just be lazy about getting the information out, or maybe she intends to blackmail me with it. Or perhaps…"

She trailed off, her mind revisiting the memory of Green Lantern's reaction to seeing her unmasked. The emerald superwoman had seemed shocked and almost scared. Or perhaps appalled. Or something. She did not sound like a woman who'd just found that she had the key to prime blackmail material or her enemy's ruination in her hands.

"But why would someone so damn gung ho about attacking me stop after finding out who I am under the helmet?" she wondered aloud.

For once, the scarab had no remark, smart mouthed or otherwise.

_You're a scientist, Ritsuko,_ she told herself. _Focus on what you know for sure, and then work from there. Don't waste time with speculation._

As always happened when she distilled the contents of her mind down to the hard facts, she found herself surprised by how little she was certain she knew.

Fact number one: Green Lantern knew who she was.

Fact number two: As a result of fact number one, Green Lantern could expose her identity at any time she liked.

Fact number three: Green Lantern had apparently not exposed her secret identity—yet.

Fact number four: If Green Lantern _did_ expose her, her life would become very…unpleasant.

_**(They can never catch you, you know.) **_The scarab reassured her, having picked up on her thoughts. _**(So long as you have me, not even Green Lantern can ever hope to catch you.)**_

"That's true," Ritsuko said, "but if it becomes public knowledge that I'm the Blue Beetle, then my life as I know it is over."

_And if _that_ happens, then I can't exactly ruin Gendo's scenario from within anymore,_ she thought. _My best bet then would be to just rush into his office with guns blazing and kill him._

_**(I'm okay with that.)**_ The scarab said cheerfully.

Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "I bet you are," she said.

Sensing how deep its host's black mood really was, the scarab's thoughts likewise lowered. _**(Are you all right?)**_

"Yes…no…I don't know," she said. "Everyone _could_ know I'm the Blue Beetle by this time tomorrow, but I don't know for sure that they _will_. I feel like I've got the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head. My course of action would be pretty clear if I was sure it was going to drop, but since I'm not, I don't know what to do."

_**(Really? It seems obvious to me.)**_ The scarab said, not unkindly.

"Is that so?" she asked.

_**(Well, yeah. You have to use what time you have to the fullest, without doing anything that would make you unable to face the people you know tomorrow if it turns out that Green Lantern doesn't want to expose your identity.)**_ The scarab said.

There was actually a lot of sense to that attitude, Ritsuko realized. Basically work up a sort of abridged "bucket list," consisting of nothing she'd only do if she was certain she was about to be revealed (such as murdering Gendo).

"Thank you," she told the scarab. "Sometimes I think things through too deeply and miss the simple solution."

_**(Glad I could help.)**_ The scarab replied as Ritsuko headed toward the shower, hoping that the hot water would ease the soreness in her muscles.

She was just stepping into the spray when the scarab spoke up again. _**(Hey! Did you just call me simple minded?)**_

* * *

Maya was working, which wasn't exactly an unusual phenomenon when she was at NERV. At the current moment, she was doing so in her tiny cubicle (which was all NERV was willing to give the dedicated technician as her private workspace), typing away at her laptop as she went about the task of upgrading one of the thousands of programs the MAGI ran all the time. It was a dull but important task, and as usual, the petite young woman was performing it diligently.

"Good morning, Maya."

The voice from behind her caused the techie to jump and then spin around. "Good morning, sempai," she replied, quickly regaining her composure. "I was just…"

Ritsuko waved her explanation off. "Working hard as usual, no doubt," she said.

"Er, yes," Maya said, her eyes drifting to the small box wrapped in colorful paper that Ritsuko was holding.

"Oh," the blonde said, seeming to suddenly remember that she was holding it. "This is for you, Maya."

The technician's eyes widened. "You got me a present?"

Nodding, Ritsuko handed her the box with a small smile. Maya accepted it and quickly began to tear off the paper.

"It's not exactly the most original gift in the world," Ritsuko warned. "I have the receipt if you don't want it…"

"I'm sure it's lovely," Maya said as she finished removing the paper and threw it into a nearby wastepaper bin.

Opening the lid of the small box, she revealed a coffee mug that had a small plastic bag of chocolates inside of it. It really _wasn't_ the most original gift in the world, but the brunette was so touched by the gesture that that hardly mattered to her.

"Thank you, sempai," Maya said. "This was very kind of you. But if you don't mind my asking, what's the occasion? My birthday isn't for months."

"No occasion, Maya," Ritsuko said. "I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your work. This job would have overwhelmed me a long time ago if I didn't have a dedicated assistant I could count on."

"Oh!" Maya exclaimed, her cheeks growing flushed with embarrassment at the praise.

"I've also put you in for a raise, though knowing the skinflints in accounting, I'm not sure how good your chances—"

Ritsuko's attempt at not giving her protégé false hope was cut off as Maya abruptly jumped forward and wrapped her arms around the scientist. The blonde was so surprised that she just stood woodenly as her assistant embraced her.

_**(You know, if what I'm getting from your mind about this "hug" thing is right, I think you're supposed to do something here.)**_ The scarab commented.

_Knock it off, _Ritsuko mentally grumbled back, but she awkwardly placed her arms around Maya all the same.

A moment later, the smaller woman pulled back, her face bright red. "Sorry about that, sempai," she said.

"It's fine," Ritsuko said, giving her assistant a reassuring smile. "Now, you get back to what you were doing. I've got some work of my own to attend to."

"Yes, sempai," Maya agreed at once, instantly plopping back down in her seat and getting back to her task with visibly more enthusiasm than she'd displayed before.

Shaking her head slightly, Ritsuko headed into the hallway. She'd expected Maya to be happy at the show of appreciation, but that was a far greater reaction than she'd predicted. It made her wonder if working under her was normally such a thankless job that what she'd done actually merited such a response.

_She hugged me,_ Ritsuko thought, still a little shocked at that.

It suddenly occurred to her that she couldn't remember the last time anyone had hugged her before that. Gendo had always seemed to do his damnedest to make the times they had sex as cold and mechanical as possible, which of course meant never embracing her. Her mother had been dead for years, of course, and she'd always tried to maintain her personal space around Misato. Which probably meant…

_**(Will you stop depressing yourself?)**_ The scarab interrupted her thoughts, irritated. _**(It doesn't help anything, and it affects me, too, you know.)**_

Ritsuko rolled her eyes, but she couldn't argue that dwelling on how devoid of genuine affection her life had been for so damn long was in any way productive.

_**(So what's next?)**_ The scarab said, sensing that its host wasn't going to keep turning the matter of her loneliness over and over in her mind any longer.

_Well, first I actually have to do my job,_ Ritsuko answered wryly. _I'd like to finish early, though, so you're going to help me as much as possible without being obvious._

_**(Hooray.)**_ The scarab said sarcastically.

* * *

Several hours later, Ritsuko was finishing up with work right on time.

_The Children should be just finishing up with today's sync tests right about now,_ she thought.

_**(So what are you going to do now?)**_ The scarab asked.

_I _should_ do something nice for Ayanami,_ Ritsuko mused. _God knows I've been none too gentle when I've had to poke and prod her over the years._

_**(But you're not going to.)**_ The scarab said astutely.

_I still don't like her,_ Ritsuko replied. _And she would be able to feel it. For someone who doesn't realize she's feeling an emotion unless someone tells her about it, Rei can be remarkably perceptive._

_**(Uh-huh.)**_ Was the scarab's reply, and Ritsuko could tell that it didn't quite buy her excuse.

Ignoring her constant her companion, the scientist made her way toward the locker room reserved for male pilots. She got there just in time to see NERV's only male EVA pilot emerging, having showered and changed from his plug suit to his school uniform.

"Hello, Shinji," she said, getting his attention.

"Oh, Doctor…um, Ritsuko, hello," he greeted, turning to face her.

"Tell me, Shinji, do you have anyplace you need to be for the next couple of hours?" Ritsuko asked.

"No," Shinji confessed.

Ritsuko saw him wince slightly, and she could easily guess why.

"I'm not planning a marathon of tests for you, Shinji," she reassured the Third Child. "I just…wanted to do something nice for you. There's a place I wanted to show you."

He gave her a suspicious look, and now Ritsuko was the one who had to keep herself from wincing. It really shouldn't surprise her that Shinji was wary of such an offer from her; she had shown precious little warmth to any of the pilots in the past.

_**(I thought we established that beating yourself up doesn't help anything.)**_ The scarab remarked.

_I thought we established that I need you to be as unobtrusive as possible when I'm at NERV and around other people,_ Ritsuko retorted.

_**(Touché.)**_ The scarab replied.

"I'm not going to drag you down to my secret lab and perform evil experiments on you, Shinji," Ritsuko reassured the hesitant boy, smiling wryly.

"Um, I can't be out for too long," Shinji said. "I have to get back to the apartment in time to cook dinner."

"That's fine," Ritsuko said. "I just have to swing by my office for a moment, and then we can go."

They did so, and the blond scientist ditched her lab coat, leaving her clad in her favorite black skirt and blue blouse combination. The outfit was professional enough for her to go to work in but nice and comfortable enough that she didn't feel the need to change out of it as soon as she'd punched out for the day.

Of course, of late, her clothing had been a bit too tight on certain parts of her body…

_**(His heart rate is increasing again.)**_ The scarab informed her only a couple of minutes after she'd lost the coat, a little smirk in its voice.

Ritsuko suddenly wondered if this was the wisest idea. It was well known she didn't usually concern herself with the pilots any more than her job required her to do so. If people saw her spending time with the Third Child…

Then she rolled her eyes. With all the crimes against both man and god that she'd committed, she was worried about people whispering that she might be doing something she shouldn't with the Third Child?

"Where are we going, Ritsuko?" Shinji asked as they arrived at her car.

"An arcade," she answered.

"Oh," he answered noncommittally.

He went to the arcade all the time along with Toji and Kensuke. It was all right, he supposed, though he doubted he'd ever go to such a place on his own.

"We're not just going to just any arcade, Shinji," Ritsuko said.

The Third Child frowned. So far as he knew, there was only one arcade in the whole city; Tokyo-3's population density was just too low to support any more than that.

"Trust me," Ritsuko said, noting his skeptical look.

She drove them out of the Geofront and onto the city above. Avoiding the arcade that Shinji knew well, she instead took them to what looked like a slightly decaying office building. It was certainly the last place he ever would have looked for video games. A sign outside labeled the establishment "Whiz Kid Enterprises."

"Now, Shinji Ikari, I am going to tell you something that should be obvious to most people, but isn't very commonly known for some reason," Ritsuko said as she found them a parking space.

"What's that?" Shinji asked.

"Tech geeks have all the best toys," Ritsuko answered with a grin.

She led him into the building's small lobby, not failing to notice how the guys there stared at her while trying very hard but very unsuccessfully to look like they weren't staring at her. It reminded her of one of the reasons why she so rarely came to the place herself. The staff was over 98 percent male, so even before the scarab had given her a makeover, she was _the_ babe around the place. Which was a novel experience, up to a point. After that, it was just unnerving.

"Hello, Yoshi," she greeted the man at the front desk.

"Ritsuko, it's so good to see you!" the guy greeted her cheerfully. "What can I do for you and your…young friend?"

"This is Shinji Ikari, one of the Evangelion pilots," Ritsuko introduced him. "I was wondering if I could show him the tank."

"Sure," Yoshi said, opening a drawer and removing a card key. "Spend as much time there as you want."

"Thanks, Yoshi," Ritsuko said, accepting the key.

Shinji looked at her inquisitively as she led him off into a nearby hallway.

"I have some kind of ties to just about everyone here," Ritsuko explained. "Either we worked together while we were undergrads in college, or we know each other from my brief time in the private sector. The people here are all brilliant, Shinji. Much of the hardware that was needed to construct the MAGI wouldn't exist without them, and the same goes for the holographic technology NERV uses."

"If that's the case, then why…?" Shinji trailed off, looking about at the rather dingy building they were in, and Ritsuko realized what he wanted to ask.

"Do they have such a seedy place here?" she finished for him. "Part of it's because the military 'seized' the rights to some of their more potentially lucrative discoveries. And part of it is that good scientists often make very crappy businessmen for some reason."

"So why are we here?" Shinji asked. "This isn't an arcade."

Ritsuko smiled. "We're about to check out one of this place's more impressive bad investments," she said. "Come on, Shinji, let me show you the tank. Or the holodeck, as they call it here."

"Holodeck?" Shinji asked.

"Like I said," Ritsuko smiled as they arrived at the right door and she swiped the card key she'd been given, "tech geeks have the best toys."

The door slid open, but Shinji's confused frown only deepened as he saw the room beyond. It was almost completely empty, with nothing but a small table by the door and some pieces of machinery he couldn't identity sitting in each of the corners.

Ritsuko picked up an obviously fake gun made of red plastic and handed it to Shinji. The Third Child immediately noted that at the end of what should have been the gun barrel was a very small light bulb, like the kind found in laser pointers.

"Stand there, Shinji," Ritsuko said, indicating a white circle that had been painted in the center of the room.

With a small shrug, Shinji did as he was told.

Ritsuko went over to a keypad on the wall and quickly punched in a code. The words "Space Invaders" appeared on the thing's small screen as she pressed the enter button.

The machinery in the corners of the room started to hum softly, and suddenly they weren't in a strange room in a slightly decrepit office building anymore.

Suddenly, they were on the moon.

"Whoa," Shinji breathed, looking around in wonder.

He realized, of course, that it was all an illusion created by holograms. However, the effect was so good that, if he'd suddenly found himself unable to breathe, he wouldn't have been entirely surprised.

"Get ready, Shinji," Ritsuko said.

"Ready?" the EVA pilot asked, still gawking at the incredibly realistic scenery. "For what?"

"For that," Ritsuko answered mildly, pointing.

Shinji turned, and his eyes widened as he saw a green-skinned creature that seemed to be all teeth and tentacles approaching him at a rapid pace.

"Ahh!" he yelped, reflexively pointing his plastic gun at the thing and pulling the trigger.

His aim wasn't very good, but Ritsuko had set the simulation at the lowest difficulty level. The creature staggered as a large hole was blown into its chest, then it collapsed to the ground. Moments after it had fallen, the thing burst into a swirling cloud of pixels, which quickly faded away.

"Wha…what?" Shinji stammered dumbly.

"I told you this place was an arcade, Shinji," Ritsuko smiled. "See if you can beat the high score. The president of the company is the one who set it, and he said that he'll give a top of the line laptop to whoever knocks him into to second place."

Several more monsters materialized in the distance as Ritsuko finished explaining, and Shinji quickly turned back and started shooting. However, the Third Child wasn't actually a very good shot. Though he'd had plenty of practice with using firearms in EVA, both in his training and real life battle experiences, he had never shot without the aid of a targeting computer and reticule before.

So, in the end, Shinji didn't set the new high score. He didn't even make the top ten list. And he asked Ritsuko if he could stop about an hour after he'd begun, which was sooner than she'd expected.

Not content to leave the afternoon like that, Ritsuko then proceeded to take Shinji to a small café where she bought him a cup of tea.

"Did you enjoy yourself at the 'arcade'?" she asked after having a sip of the overpriced coffee she'd bought for herself.

"Yeah, it was fun," Shinji answered.

Ritsuko arched an eyebrow. "Well, don't blow me away with your enthusiasm, Shinji."

"Sorry," he said. "Video games just aren't really my thing. I'm sure Toji and Kensuke—my friends—would have loved it, though," Shinji added.

"You know, you can take them there, if you like," Ritsuko said. "The company will let you and anyone with you in to play the games in the holodeck, so long as I ask them to."

"Thank you," Shinji said, looking more excited at this prospect.

"So what would you do, Shinji, if it was up to you where you and your friends hung out?" Ritsuko asked.

The Third Child shrugged. "I don't know."

"Surely you must have your own pastimes," Ritsuko pressed.

"Oh, I do, but they're not exactly group activities," Shinji said. "Mostly I just listen to music on my SDAT. Speaking of that, I wanted to thank you again for those tapes you gave me. I don't understand the lectures at all, but it's…really nice to hear my mother's voice."

"I'm glad," Ritsuko said, giving him a small smile.

They lapsed into silence after that.

_**(Say something!)**_ The scarab piped up after a minute.

_Like what?_ She replied. _God, what made me think I could have any interactions with him that weren't as awkward as hell?_

"Ritsuko?" Shinji spoke up before the scarab could retort. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, Shinji," the blonde said. "Ask me anything you like."

"Well, I…I just wanted to know about my father," the Third Child said sheepishly.

"Why are you asking me?" the scientist asked, carefully concealing her alarm.

_Does he know that Gendo and I…?_ She wondered nervously. She and the Commander had always done their best to be discreet about their relationship, but if even the Third Child knew about them, then the affair was probably public knowledge.

"Well, you've worked with him a while, haven't you?" Shinji asked.

"Oh, yes," Ritsuko said, relieved. "I suppose I have. I guess the only person around here who's known him longer is the Vice Commander."

"I was wondering if you could tell me about him," Shinji said quietly. "I don't know him very well."

The EVA pilot looked so sad that Ritsuko felt her heart go out to him, and she felt ashamed that she'd ever wasted time feeling sorry for herself. They were both victims of Gendo's machinations, but she'd known what the bastard was doing. At the end of the day, she'd allowed him to do what he had done to her, had given him the power. Shinji, on the other hand, was oblivious to his father's true crimes, and Gendo had carefully orchestrated events so that the Third Child couldn't escape without abandoning the whole world to ruin.

And yet despite all the misery that had been heaped upon him, Shinji continued to not only function as an EVA pilot, but also live a relatively normal school life _and_ take care of her slovenly friend.

The general consensus around NERV was that the timid boy who had not always been cool in the face of combat was weak, but Ritsuko realized that he had endured an enormous amount of crap, and continued to do so. It was actually quite impressive when viewed from such a perspective.

"You don't have to tell me anything about him if you don't want to," he spoke up as her silence dragged on.

"No, no, it's not that. Shinji, your father…" Ritsuko began, then trailed off, not sure what she should tell him.

She couldn't inform the pilot that his father was a monster, but it would be no kindness to lie to him and paint a rosy picture of Gendo Ikari. She took several seconds to choose her words.

"Gendo's a brilliant man, a driven man, and a cold man," she said finally. "I think he was always that way to an extent, but he became more so after, well, you know."

Shinji nodded.

"I wish I could tell you differently, Shinji," Ritsuko run, lazily running her finger along the rim of her coffee cup. "I really do."

"It's all right," Shinji said. "You just told me the truth."

They lapsed into silence again.

"Ritsuko, I think I should probably head home now," Shinji said.

"I'll drive you back," Ritsuko said, draining the last of her coffee.

Despite the scarab's prodding, the ride to Misato's apartment building was a mostly silent one.

"Well, here we are," Ritsuko said as she pulled up in front of her friend's home. "Do you mind if I come up with you? I need to see Misato for a minute."

She needed to thank the purple haired woman for being such a loyal friend to her for so long.

"Of course you can come up," Shinji said. "I'd invite you to stay for dinner, but there's barely any food in the house. I really need to go grocery shopping. Maybe you could come over some other time, though."

"I'd like that," Ritsuko said. "Um, just so long as it's a night you're doing the cooking."

"All right," Shinji said, a small smile appearing on his face.

"Good," the scientist said. "Misato's a good friend, but I could never tolerate her cooking. Once she made this thing for me that had me suffering for _days_. I think she called her the Katsuragi Super Special—"

"—Chili Surprise." Shinji finished for her.

The two of them both shuddered at their memories of the lethal dish, then shared a brief laugh.

"Oh, I needed that," Ritsuko said.

"Me, too," Shinji agreed as they got out of the car.

The two of them rode the elevator to Misato's floor and were soon entering the apartment.

"I'm home," Shinji called.

"Welcome home!" Misato responded from somewhere within the apartment.

The Third Child looked around. "Where's Asuka?" he asked.

"Out somewhere," Misato replied. "She'll be back for dinner."

"Okay," Shinji said. "Oh, and I brought Ritsuko with me. She wants to see you."

That immediately brought Misato out into the kitchen with them. The blonde didn't quite recognize the look that appeared on her friend's face as Misato saw her, but she didn't think she liked it.

"Hello, Misato," the scientist replied, trying to figure out what she'd done to displease the Operations Director.

"Shinji, could you excuse us for a second?" Misato asked. "I need a private word with Rits here."

The Third Child, who was already taking ingredients out of the refrigerator, quickly gave his assent. Misato led Ritsuko to her bedroom and shut the door after them.

_**(Wow.)**_ The scarab said as it surveyed the piles of dirty laundry and garbage that were scattered all over the room, leaving little room to stand.

_Yeah, that's Misato,_ Ritsuko agreed.

"So, what did you want to talk about, Misato?" the blonde asked. "I hope you don't mind that I took Shinji out for a few hours. I just thought he deserved to have something nice done for him."

"No, it's not about that," Misato said, reaching into her pocket and pulling something out. "It's more about this actually."

The purple haired woman opened her palm to reveal what she was holding, and Ritsuko's eyes widened at the sight. The scarab hissed.

It was a ring of a green metal that had a symbol the scientist was very familiar with on the top.

"You?!" the blonde gasped. "You're…?!"

"Yeah," Misato said. "Look, I'll keep mine under control if you keep yours under control."

_**(I don't trust her.)**_ The scarab said immediately.

_She's my best friend,_ Ritsuko replied firmly. _She won't hurt us, so just calm down._

The scarab grumbled out something that sounded like an assent.

"All right," Ritsuko told Misato.

The Ops Director slid the ring onto the middle finger of her right hand, but she didn't change into her costume, which Ritsuko had been half expecting. The blonde could feel the scarab's hackles rise, but it didn't try to force her to attack.

"Why have you been attacking me?" Ritsuko asked.

"Hey, you shot first the first time we met up as our…other selves," Misato said defensively.

"Sorry about that," Ritsuko said. "The scarab panicked. But you've been seeking me out. You did it more than once."

Misato sighed. "What do you know about that scarab of yours, Ritsuko?"

"Not much, except that it's very powerful, and it's intelligent," she said. "It was damaged when it first…bonded to me, so even it doesn't know what it is. I assume it's alien in origin, but I don't know much of anything about it."

"Well, my ring does," Misato said.

"Tell me," Ritsuko said.

A thin shaft of green light came from the top of Misato's ring and turned into a hologram that looked just like the scarab, except it was green in color. "Those scarab things are the weapons of choice for a group of aliens called the Reach," she began.

"The Reach?"

Misato nodded. "From what I've been able to tell, they're planet brokers or something. They conquer worlds and then either sell them to the highest bidder or totally strip them of their resources. But they supposedly stopped doing that thousands of years ago."

"Why?" Ritsuko asked.

"The Green Lantern Corps went to war with them," Misato said.

The emerald hologram hovering over her ring shifted to show aliens of all shapes and sizes, all of them clad in a costume similar to Misato's, fighting with other aliens in armor like the kind Ritsuko wore as the Blue Beetle.

"Green Lantern _Corps_? There are more of you?" Ritsuko asked.

"There's supposed to be thousands," Misato answered, "but I haven't met any yet. Nobody's contacted me or anything so far."

"Okay," Ritsuko said. "Anyway, who won the war? The Green Lanterns?"

"It ended in a stalemate," Misato said. "As part of the peace treaty, the Green Lanterns had to leave the Reach alone, but the Reach weren't allowed to conquer planets anymore."

"Then why was the scarab on Earth?" Ritsuko asked.

"That's a good question, isn't it?" Misato replied in a meaningful tone.

_Scarab?_ Ritsuko asked.

_**(I don't know.)**_ It answered helplessly. _**(I don't feel like I'm supposed to conquer this world or anything.)**_

"If the scarab ever had any kind of 'world domination' programming, it must have been wiped when the damage it took destroyed so much of its memory," Ritsuko said.

Misato studied her eyes for a long moment, apparently looking for any sign of alien control in them. Finally, she nodded. "I believe you," she said.

_And she does, too, _the scientist thought, amazed at the level of trust.

She had been involved with Gendo's world--one where everyone had their own agenda and trust was always a fatal weakness--far too long, she realized.

"So all this is why my scarab reacts to your ring like it does?" Ritsuko asked, changing the subject. "They're old enemies?"

"Yeah," Misato said, absently fingering the band of green metal on her finger. "In fact, one of the Green Lanterns who wore this ring before me was killed by a Reach soldier."

"So that's why you were after me?" Ritsuko asked. "Your ring reacts to my scarab like my scarab reacts to it?"

Misato sighed. "That's part of it," she said. "But there was more. I've had this ring for a while, but I haven't been able to use it for what I want. I always have to be in the command center when the Angels come knocking. I'd step down from the Operations Director position, but I don't want to if I'm not sure this ring can kill Angels. I was going to try that time an Angel attacked when the power went out, but Kaji managed to get into that elevator with me, so I couldn't get away without letting him know about my ring."

"Okay, so?"

"So when my ring started to tell me to destroy the evil alien threat, I was too eager to do something big as Green Lantern and I pursued you way too aggressively," Misato said.

Ritsuko ran a hand through her hair. "We could have killed each other."

"I know," Misato said. "I'm sorry I let the ring run away with me."

"It's my fault, too," Ritsuko said. "Like you said, I shot first."

"So, now that that's behind us," Misato said, suddenly becoming cheerful again, "tell me what you're working on."

"What do you mean?" Ritsuko asked guardedly.

"Oh, come on, Ritsuko, I've been reading the papers," Misato said. "I know that the Blue Beetle's been a busy little bug. You're up to something. You wouldn't make the time in your crazy schedule for all that if you weren't."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ritsuko said.

"Hey, don't be like that. Whatever it is, I can help you. I am the Green Lantern, after all." Misato said. "Don't you trust me?"

As terrible as it made her feel, Ritsuko didn't. Misato was her friend, and a good person—indeed, Ritsuko considered the Ops Director a better person than herself. And that was part of the reason why she wasn't willing to explain everything to her friend. If she told Misato she wanted to topple NERV, the purple haired woman would want to know why. And if Ritsuko explained that to her, Misato might be unable to tolerate the organization and its evils another minute, especially since the Children suffered more than anyone because of them. Misato might opt for the direct approach.

And ultimately things could only end in disaster if Green Lantern tore NERV apart brick by brick.

"Misato, I'm really not up to anything," Ritsuko insisted.

Unfortunately, her voice sounded weak even to her own ears.

"Fine," Misato scowled. "Be that way."

Ritsuko sighed. Somehow, she got the feeling that she wouldn't be coming back to the Katsuragi apartment to join the occupants for dinner any time soon.

"I'll just get out of here now," she said softly. "It was good to see you, Misato, and thanks for telling me about the Reach."

"Ritsuko," the purple haired woman said as the scientist was almost at the door.

"Yes?"

"You'll come to me for help if you get in too deep, right?" Misato asked.

"Of course," she said.

_Probably not,_ she thought.

_**(Well, at least we don't have to worry about Green Lantern anymore.)**_ The scarab said as Ritsuko headed back to her car. Then it paused and added. _**(We don't do we? She won't expose you because you didn't let her in on your plan, will she?)**_

_Not a chance,_ Ritsuko replied. _Misato doesn't have it in her to even threaten to do such a thing to one of her friends._ _Which means that we can move to the next phase of the plan._

_**(And what's that?)**_ The scarab asked.

_I thought you knew,_ Ritsuko replied. _We need to kill us an Angel._

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And here, finally, we explain why the scarab and the ring reacted to one another with such extreme hostility. If the explanation seems a little wonky to you, keep in mind I pulled it right out of the Blue Beetle comic book.

Now, a few of you might be wondering why I decided not to have Ritsuko and Misato be super buddies. Well, the fact of the matter is that I really don't think Rits would go for that. To be honest, I always kind of thought that Ritsuko felt Misato was a great person to go have a drink with, but secretly didn't trust her much and thought she was a little dumb and a lot reckless (Ritsuko never really confided in Misato, and several episodes showed her clearly thinking Misato had made a very bad choice in regards to fighting the Angels, up to the point where Ritsuko once seized command). However, I'm trying to be fair to Ritsuko, so I gave her a less damning reason for keeping her plans to herself in the story.

Onto the matter of shipping. You seem pretty split down the middle on this, dear reviewers, so for now I'm just going to leave the question of how it'll turn out up in the air and see how the story develops. Please, continue to feel free to leave your two cents on the matter, though.

On the issue of Ritsuko's plan against NERV, I'll try and spell it out soon, but it's really not that complex. If you think about it for a while, and if you've been reading the other SOE and SOE2 fics, you can probably figure out the basic idea.

**Animefan29**, a big picture manipulator Gendo might be, but that doesn't change the fact that some of the decisions we know he made personally were dumb ones. The thing making sure Shinji was with the fleet was one example, and leaving the Dummy System on until it had crushed Toji's entry plug was another. Really, the only reason to do that was petty spite, and a master manipulator should be above such things.

**NefCanuck**, keep in mind that Ritsuko wasn't going around hero-ing for the sake of it. She feels that building up superhero cred will help her plan succeed.

**Gunman,** first, the idea that Ritsuko's oral fixation from cigarette smoking will lead her to do _that_ to Shinji is just…kind of ridiculous. I don't want to be mean or anything, but that kind of logic only works in porn, and while the SOE and SOE2 series always had a healthy dose of fan service, they were never porn.

And I guess I have been punishing Shinji in my omakes recently. I kind of felt that punishing Gendo would get old if I didn't mix it up every now and then. And I don't know about you, but to me, pre-Thirteenth Angel Shinji always had a sort of Charlie Brown type quality where I feel this weird impulse to pile misfortunes onto him for comic purposes.

**AliceMeidou,** thanks for the suggestion, and it's nice to see another Asuka fan around here.

Anyway, I've rambled more than enough. Thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well. Now for some omake fun (I promise you won't need brain bleach this time).

* * *

Omake

Perchance to Dream

"So that's how you became the Green Lantern, huh?" Ritsuko asked.

The two women were seated at Misato's kitchen table. They had gotten over any bad feelings that might have existed between the two of them and were discussing the origins of their superpowers over a cup of coffee.

"That's the story," Misato confirmed, "but I have to say, I almost wish I'd gotten that scarab instead! Damn, Rits, but you've been looking hot ever since you got that bug under control!"

"I don't know what you're implying," Ritsuko said innocently.

Misato grinned mischievously, and before the blonde could react, a hand made of green light shot out from her ring and rudely grabbed hold of Ritsuko's blouse and quickly pulled it off of her, leaving her in only her bra from the waist up.

"Misato!" Ritsuko snapped, but the purple haired woman was giggling too hard to notice her friend's indignation.

"Yeah, you don't know _what_ I'm implying," Misato teased as she looked her friend up and down. "And I'm sure you got that buff by _typing_."

"Misato…"

"And I _know_ you haven't always had _those_," Misato said, pointing at Ritsuko's chest, "which, by the way, almost make _me_ feel jealous."

"Oh, can it," Ritsuko grumbled, "I know you've been using that ring of yours to alter your body, too."

"Only when I'm in costume, so I'll be harder to recognize," Misato said. "The rest of the time, I'm just plain ol' me."

"Really? You switch back and forth like that?" Ritsuko asked.

"Yeah. See, I'll show you," Misato said.

She rose from her seat and then lifted her shirt enough to reveal her stomach. It was flat, but of the six pack that Green Lantern boasted, Ritsuko could see no trace.

"Wow, that's pretty wild," Ritsuko said, getting up and gently poking Misato in the stomach, as though searching for the tight muscles that should have been there.

Suddenly, the door to the apartment opened and Shinji walked in.

"I'm…" he trailed off as he saw the scene in front of him, "…home."

_Oh, wonderful,_ Ritsuko groaned inwardly, unable to believe that she'd been caught in such a position and state of undress like this. _Three guesses what conclusion he'll come up with about this._

However, instead of the stammering apology and quick retreat she'd expected from the Third Child, Shinji's next words were perfectly calm and composed.

"Well, clearly _I'm_ dreaming again," he said dryly, then he pulled up a chair for himself and sat down. "Proceed, ladies. Just let me know when you want me to jump in, and which one of you wants to be with me first."

Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "Shinji, you're not—"

She was cut off as Misato slapped a hand over her mouth. "You know how Shinji's all nervous and timid all the time?" the Ops Director whispered. "Well, when I can convince him he's dreaming, all his inhibitions and insecurities go away. And when that happens, he is _amazing_."

Ritsuko moved Misato's hand away from her mouth. "Amazing? As in amazing at…?"

Misato nodded.

Ritsuko looked over at Shinji. Then back at Misato. Then back at Shinji.

"Me first!" the blonde yelled.

"No, me!" Misato exclaimed.

The two both attempted to lunge for the Third Child, only to end up landing in a heap on the floor, where the two of them began to wrestle fiercely with one another, both struggling to get to Shinji first.

"Wow," Shinji said as he observed the two of them, "these dreams just keep getting better and better!"


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Five:** Unintended Consequences

In some dim corner of her mind, Ritsuko Akagi realized that she must have looked like quite the mad scientist at the moment.

The blonde was bent over a small workbench she kept inside her basement, intensely focused on her current project. Strapped onto her face was a pair of heavy duty goggles which both protected her eyes and magnified what she was seeing to help her perform delicate work on small components; anyone who looked at her would have found her green eyes badly distorted by the thick lenses. The tool she held in one hand sent up sparks every time she applied it to her project, and she was wearing her white coat, just because.

_**(Victor Frankenstein, eat your heart out.)**_ The scarab commented, clearly at least as aware of the picture Ritsuko currently made as she herself was.

"Oh, knock it off," Ritsuko grumbled. "It's not like anyone's down here to see me."

_**(Would they even be surprised, if they were?)**_ The scarab asked.

"Shut it," she said. "I need to concentrate. I'm almost finished, and I don't want to mess this up at the end."

The scarab fell silent immediately, clearly not wanting to endure waiting while Ritsuko redid the whole project.

The blonde returned her concentration to her work, silently admitting to herself that not only did she look like a mad scientist, she felt like one, too. Up until recently, she'd been far too concerned with one problem or another to really stop and think about how having her mind directly linked to the scarab—with its awe-inspiring processing power and knowledge of advanced, alien technology—opened up possibilities to her. Now that she had, her head was spinning with the seemingly unlimited possibilities, and an N2 mine could have gone off outside without breaking her attention to her current project.

"Almost…" she muttered to herself as she performed a few final touches on the object on her workbench. "There! Finished!"

Pulling off her goggles and putting down her tools, Ritsuko took a moment to regard the fruit of her labor. On the workbench sat a device that was, perhaps not surprisingly, shaped like a beetle and had a blue exterior. It was about the size of her hand, making it approximately half the size of the scarab.

"It looks like your little brother," Ritsuko commented in amusement.

The scarab performed the mental equivalent of an offended snort in response. _**(Please, you know better than that.)**_

Indeed, Ritsuko did know, having built the new beetle-shaped device. While superficially it might have looked like a miniature version of the chunk of alien hardware she had inside of her, it was very different under the hood, and nowhere near as sophisticated as the scarab.

Though, given how advanced the scarab was, that really wasn't saying much.

_**(Well?)**_ It asked impatiently. _**(Aren't you going to try it out? You didn't go to all the trouble of building that thing just so you could stare at it.)**_

Nodding, Ritsuko placed the small device on the floor and then pressed a button on the bottom of it. Immediately, the top of the gadget opened, revealing a sort of projector.

A burst of light followed, bright enough to momentarily blind Ritsuko. Blinking away spots, she made a mental note to adjust the device to prevent or at least tone down the intense flash.

Her vision clearing after a few seconds, Ritsuko looked again and found herself face to face with… herself. A perfect duplicate of Ritsuko Akagi stood where her new gadget had been a moment before, standing stock still.

Though she'd been expecting this, it still startled Ritsuko—the real Ritsuko—to see such a flawless copy of herself standing before her.

"Amazing," she said, walking in a slow circle around her duplicate.

_**(I told you that this holographic projector would create illusions good enough to fool anyone.)**_ The scarab said smugly.

Nodding absently, Ritsuko placed a hand on her doppelganger's shoulder. A series of force fields gave the hologram the illusion of substance, and it was an amazingly good illusion, too. The feel of the hologram's blouse beneath Ritsuko's fingers was indistinguishable from the real thing.

"As impressive as this is, it's not going to be very useful if all it does is stand there," Ritsuko commented.

"I'm perfectly capable of doing more than just standing around," 'holo-Ritsuko' replied.

Startled by the sudden movement, her flesh-and-blood counterpart jumped back slightly. Then, realizing how needlessly jumpy she was being about all this, Ritsuko let out a small laugh.

"Do I really sound like that?" she asked.

The question was directed at the scarab, but it was her holographic duplicate who answered. "Oh, yes, you certainly do," holo-Ritsuko answered. "In fact, I sound more like you than you do right now. You're usually not startled so easily."

"I see," Ritsuko said.

Absently, she noted that while the duplicate's voice was coming from the projector that was hidden by the hologram, it sounded like it was coming from the hologram's mouth.

"Still a little shell-shocked, I see," holo-Ritsuko noted with a sardonic grin. "Considering you just made the projector that's creating me with your own two hands, you really shouldn't be."

Holo-Ritsuko then removed a pack of equally holographic cigarettes from her pocket, along with a Zippo lighter. The genuine Ritsuko watched enviously as her holographic doppelganger lit up and took a long drag.

Still far from over her desire for tobacco, Ritsuko happily allowed holo-Ritsuko to exhale the smoke right in her face. Unfortunately for the nicotine-starved blonde, this was where the hologram's realism finally failed; the faux cigarette smoke had absolutely no scent to it.

"You can't smoke," Ritsuko flatly told her double. "People will realize something's wrong when they can't smell it, and anyway, I've told people that I quit."

"Nobody would be very surprised if it seemed like you fell off the wagon," holo-Ritsuko said, but she removed the cigarette from her lips and carelessly tossed it away.

The holographic cigarette didn't make it halfway to the floor before it vanished without a trace.

"You can't do that sort of thing in public," Ritsuko admonished. "People would realize something was up in a second."

"I know that," holo-Ritsuko said. "You can give me a _little_ credit."

Ritsuko actually gave her illusionary counterpart more than a little credit; aside from the attitude, she was perfect. Almost too perfect. "Scarab, have we created a sentient artificial being here?" she asked, rather nervous about the prospect. "Because this thing definitely passes the Turing Test."

_**(Relax.)**_ The scarab said. _**(It only seems so lifelike because it's wirelessly connected to me.)**_

"Ah, so you're controlling it," Ritsuko said.

_**(Basically.)**_ The scarab replied. _**(It can function without the connection to me, but it wouldn't be as convincing.)**_

"So, you're the reason it's jerking my chain a little bit," Ritsuko deduced.

"Oh, yes," holo-Ritsuko answered. "Not that it would hurt you to lighten up a bit, and it wouldn't kill you to start referring to me as a 'she' instead of an 'it.' But I can act just like you when I need to. The scarab can use its connection to you in order to make me react to things exactly as you would."

"That's good to hear," Ritsuko said. "Now, Scarab, turn it off."

Holo-Ritsuko vanished, leaving only the beetle-shaped projector on the floor where she'd been standing. Ritsuko picked it up.

"Well, it looks like I won't have to worry about people missing me on the command center when the next Angel shows up," Ritsuko said.

* * *

Shinji Ikari would have been lying if he said he understood everything about the Evangelion. Indeed, the fact of the matter was that even after months of piloting one of those beasts, he still had more questions than answers about them.

He didn't understand the basic principles behind the functioning of the Evangelion.

He didn't know why only Evangelions and Angels could project AT Fields.

He didn't know why he felt so comfortable inside the entry plug but not the test plug.

Yet regardless of all of that, he was starting to believe that he might actually be good at EVA piloting.

It was a conclusion that Shinji—so accustomed to not thinking much of himself—had at first been very reluctant to arrive at. However, that had started to change after the battle against the Tenth Angel, which had been so successful, and the praise he'd received from his father for it. The approval-starved Third Child had eagerly lapped it up and craved the opportunity to earn more.

Which was probably why he was focusing his mind on the task of doing as best he could on the sync test he was currently taking with far more enthusiasm than he'd displayed in tests of the past. Shinji had a good feeling about this particular test; the synchronization felt smooth and practically effortless that afternoon.

So when one of the technicians announced that the test was complete, Shinji, instead of silently crawling out and going toward his locker room as usual, eagerly asked Misato how his scores were.

Smiling, his guardian gave him a thumbs up. "You did great today, Shinji! In fact, you're number one in the sync scores!"

"WHAT?" Asuka shrieked from nearby.

The Second Child immediately began to rant after her explosive exclamation, stating that the test plugs had to be broken, that one of the technicians must've deliberately skewed the results to boost Shinji's confidence, and whatever other excuses she could think of. But for once, Shinji found he didn't care that he'd pissed the redhead off.

He was proud of himself.

Ignoring Asuka's displeasure, he playfully saluted Misato and then headed off for his locker room, where he took a quick shower and changed back into his normal clothing. Emerging from the locker room, Shinji immediately spotted the chairperson of Project-E, who happened to be passing by.

"Hello, Dr. Akagi, er, Ritsuko," he greeted her.

She seemed (understandably) startled by his uncharacteristic cheerfulness but not displeased to have run into him. "Hello, Shinji," she replied. "How are you doing?"

"Good," he replied, severely tempted to just blurt out his recent success but still reluctant to brag. "Really good."

"Glad to hear it," Ritsuko said. "Have you been back to the Whiz Kid to play the games since I took you there?"

Shinji nodded. "Yeah. I took Toji and Kensuke—my friends—with me, and they absolutely loved it," he said. "We're going again this weekend."

"I'm glad to hear you had fun," Ritsuko said, smiling.

A brief moment of silence followed.

Finally, Shinji could resist no more. "I got the highest score in today's sync test," he proclaimed.

Ritsuko smiled at him in response, but there was a certain edge of sadness to it that perplexed the Third Child.

"Are you busy?" she asked him abruptly. "Is there someplace you need to be soon?"

"No," Shinji answered.

Ritsuko nodded. "Then let me buy you a drink, Shinji," she said. "I'd like to speak with you."

"Sure," Shinji agreed gamely.

Ritsuko gestured for him to follow her, and she led him to an area with some vending machines and a few benches with thin cushions. Such places were the closest things to break rooms in the NERV base so far as Shinji knew, and they were fairly plentiful. However, he'd never been to this particular one. It was pretty out of the way, and Shinji supposed that the only reason Ritsuko knew about this particular nook was because she worked in the base for years.

Wordlessly, the scientist took out some money and deposited it into one of the machines, causing two cans to fall out. One can contained coffee, which she took for herself. The other was a soda, and she gave it to Shinji. It wasn't his favorite kind, but there was no point in saying anything; it wasn't as if they could exchange the soda for a different one. And in any case, the blonde looked so distracted at the moment that Shinji couldn't even imagine being annoyed at her for choosing a beverage for him without consulting him first.

He sat down and opened his soda. Ritsuko sat next to him but just held the can of coffee in her hands. Shinji was somehow unsurprised when she was silent for a long moment, despite having said that she wanted to talk to him.

Finally, she spoke. "I never apologized to you for the way I tried to pressure you into piloting EVA that first time," she observed quietly.

Shinji, who was fresh from an EVA-related triumph and not about to hold that against her, blinked in surprise. "It's all right, Ritsuko," he said awkwardly. "If I hadn't piloted, you would have had to send Rei out, and she couldn't have won in her condition. The Angel would have destroyed everything."

"That's an explanation for forcing you to pilot, not a justification," Ritsuko said. "I don't think anything could actually _justify_ forcing you into that position."

Shinji, who had quickly grown to like the scientist since she'd started to show him kindness, was eager to absolve her of any guilt but unsure how to go about it.

Before he could even figure out how to try, she spoke again. "Remember what I said about you just having to sit in the seat?" she asked. "I thought you might be more willing to climb into the entry plug if you thought you'd be just an ignition key, instead of a pilot. I was scared enough of dying that I was willing to deceive you."

"Ritsuko… I… why are you telling me all this?" Shinji asked helplessly, just wanting the blonde to stop beating herself up over something he didn't bear the least bit of ill will toward her for.

She gave him a smile that was somehow both wry and bitter at the same time, coming close to looking more like the Ritsuko he knew. "Maybe I just felt the need to confess, and I thought it would be more appropriate to spill my guts to you rather than find a priest or something."

"…oh," Shinji said, not able to think up any other response than that.

The bitterness left Ritsuko's smile, leaving only wryness in its place, and she at last looked completely like herself.

"Anyway, Shinji, I wanted to congratulate you on your victory today," she said, finally opening her can of coffee.

He straightened up. "Thank you."

"I'll bet Asuka's fit to chew nails and spit staples right about now," Ritsuko commented.

Shinji smiled at the metaphor; even though he knew he'd be suffering later for enraging the redhead, it seemed amusing at the moment. "Yeah," he said.

"I also wanted to caution you about… excess enthusiasm, when it comes to EVA," Ritsuko added.

"Huh?"

"I don't want to burst your bubble, or make you stop giving piloting your full effort," Ritsuko clarified quickly. "It's just… it often doesn't pay to throw yourself heart and soul into something that someone else has chosen for you."

"What do you mean?" Shinji asked.

"Well, you might invest too much into something you don't want," Ritsuko said, suddenly looking rather awkward.

Shinji still didn't really understand what the scientist was saying.

She sighed softly and reached into one of the pockets of her lab coat. After groping around in it for a second, she produced only a pack of gum. She looked at it hatefully, and Shinji abruptly realized that she'd been searching for cigarettes. Wordlessly, she offered him a piece, which he turned down. Ritsuko put the pack of chewing gum away and took a sip of her coffee.

"When I was younger, and thinking about which university I would go it, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that I'd study science," she said. "The only question was which branch of science."

"How did you choose?" Shinji asked.

"In the end, I did what my mother encouraged me to do and studied the same fields she had, then I ended up working for NERV, like her," Ritsuko said. "My mother and I always got along better as fellow scientists than as mother and daughter. When I was growing up, no interaction between us was ever as smooth as when she helped me with a science project. I guess she just wanted to increase the amount of time we spent getting along comfortably. I guess I did, too."

The scientist fell silent for a moment, but Shinji suspected that she was just figuring out how to proceed with her story. Regardless of why she had paused, he felt no inclination to speak.

"But when I started working for NERV, I discovered that I'd placed myself directly in my mother's shadow," Ritsuko resumed eventually. "I wasn't 'Doctor Akagi' to anyone. I was just 'Doctor Akagi's daughter.' Even now, the people who were around during my mother's tenure still think of me like that. It's because my mother created the MAGI. I've never had an achievement to rival that, and since I work with the MAGI everyday, I'm always being reminded that my mother was the better scientist.

"If I hadn't done what my mother wanted, I might have ended up working somewhere else and been happier for it," Ritsuko said. "I guess what I'm trying to tell you is that it's not a good idea to invest yourself completely into something unless _you_ chose it for yourself. It would be…prudent for you to remember that, at the end of the day, piloting Evangelion is still something we forced you to do in order to save our own skins."

Shinji nodded solemnly, finding that his enthusiasm and glee from beating Asuka earlier had been thoroughly tempered, if not dampened entirely. After finally receiving some praise from his father, it had been surprisingly easy to all but forget how the man had treated him upon his arrival to NERV. Much as Shinji hated to admit it to himself, it was probably wise to exercise at least some degree of caution when it came to trusting his father.

"I think I underst—"

"Shinji-kun!" the familiar voice of his guardian cut him off in mid-word.

"Misato," he replied.

"I've been looking everywhere for you. Where did you…?" she trailed off as she noticed the presence of the blond scientist who was sitting with Shinji. "Oh, hello, Ritsuko."

Her tone suddenly turned cold as she greeted her friend, much to Shinji's confusion.

"Hi, Misato," Ritsuko replied in a far more neutral voice. "Shinji and I were just talking about the results of his latest sync test."

"I see," Misato said, her voice not warming, and then turned her attention back to the Third Child. "Come on, Shinji, we have to head back home now."

"Oh, sure," Shinji agreed. "Just let me say good-bye to Rit… um, Dr. Akagi."

Misato's eyes narrowed, and she directed a suspicious look at the blonde. "All right, Shinji-kun," she said. "I'll head for the parking garage. Don't take too long, all right?"

_What on earth happened between them?_ Shinji wondered as he watched Misato depart, completely befuddled to see his guardian directing such obvious hostility toward Ritsuko.

The scientist answered before Shinji could even decide whether or not to pose the question. "We… had an argument," Ritsuko said.

Of course, _this_ just made Shinji even more curious, but it was obvious that the blonde wasn't about to divulge any details. And he had a sneaking suspicion that Misato would be similarly tight-lipped about whatever had come between her and her friend, even if (when) she got drunk…

"Well," he said, putting all that out of his mind, "it looks like I have to go. I guess I'll see you around, Ritsuko."

"I guess," she echoed doubtfully, glancing off in the direction that Misato had departed in.

Shinji also started to leave, but then paused before he turned a corner and lost sight of Ritsuko, who remained in the little break area, apparently planning to nurse her can of coffee for a while.

He almost lost his nerve and just left, but somehow he found enough courage to blurt out, "Ritsuko, I never knew your mother, but for what it's worth, I don't think anybody who can hack into an Angel deserves to be thought of as the second-best scientist."

Ritsuko looked surprised by the compliment for a moment, then she beamed at Shinji. The EVA pilot felt his heartbeat accelerate at the sight, and he wondered, not for the first time, when exactly the scientist had gone from merely attractive to outright stunning.

"Thank you, Shinji. That means a lot to me," she said. "Now, you'd better get going. Misato is waiting for you."

* * *

The car sped through the streets of Tokyo-3, tires screeching loudly just about every time it made a turn. The driver was navigating through the urban jungle with a total disregard for the safety of others, as the several crumpled vehicles he'd left in his wake—all of which had crashed in their attempts to avoid him—could attest to. Behind this car was a long line of police cruisers, lights flashing and sirens wailing as they pursued the offensive driver. However, in the narrow streets, with the trail of destruction they had to chase him through, they were having difficulty catching up to the car.

_**(So it's a good thing that the Blue Beetle's on the scene!)**_ The scarab said exuberantly as the superwoman in question chased after the speeding car from the air.

Blue Beetle sighed. "Are you _narrating_ for me?" she asked.

_**(…maybe.)**_

Shaking her head, the superwoman in the blue and black armor decided to ignore her constant companion and put on an extra burst of speed to help her catch up to the speeding car. Within moments, she was flying right alongside the vehicle, and was easily able to look directly at the driver through the window, finding that a heavyset man with a wild look in his eyes was clutching the steering wheel with a white knuckled grip.

"Hey!" Blue Beetle shouted. "You're going pretty damn fast there! What's the big…?"

The insectoid superwoman trailed off as her gaze shifted to the rear of the car's interior, and she realized _exactly_ why the man was willing to leave a trail of destruction in his wake as he fled from the police.

In the back seat was a young woman. She was only half dressed, clad in just panties and a tank top, and her ankles and wrists were tightly bound by lengths of thick cord. Something that Blue Beetle suspected was a nylon stocking had been wadded up and stuffed into her mouth to prevent her from talking.

Dark, purplish bruises marked her pale skin all over. She turned and gave Blue Beetle a desperate look, mumbling loudly through the fabric that was crammed into her mouth.

The woman behind the Blue Beetle's helmet felt an instant rush of sympathy for the poor woman. Gendo had never struck her; while the Commander of NERV had once gotten into at least one barroom brawl a week, he had become more sophisticated in his cruelty as he'd gotten older. His abuse had always been of a more emotional and psychological nature.

But she could only too easily imagine a world in which Gendo hit her, and suddenly, Blue Beetle _had_ to rescue that poor woman.

_**(Ritsuko!)**_ The scarab suddenly shouted.

She snapped her attention back to the crazy driver, only to find herself staring down the double barrels of a sawed off shotgun.

_Oh, fu—_

**BOOM!**

The report of the weapon was deafening, and the shot that erupted from the gun blasted the Blue Beetle right in the face. The armor protected her from injury, but even it couldn't prevent the pain that she felt from being shot at point blank range by such a powerful weapon. She released a cry of pain and lost control of her flight entirely.

The next thing she knew, she was no longer on the street but the sidewalk, laying atop a pile of metal garbage cans that she'd apparently knocked over.

_**(Ouch.)**_ The scarab commented.

Blue Beetle didn't bother to respond, still very determined to save that poor woman. With a thought, she was aloft again, once more in pursuit of the speeding car.

"We need to stop them," she said.

_**(Just give me the word, and I'll blow out the tires.)**_ The scarab offered.

"Hell no," Blue Beetle replied. "If we blow out the tires when the car's moving at that speed, it'll go out of control and crash into something. Violently."

The scarab briefly considered commenting that it liked violence, but thanks to the connection it shared with Ritsuko, it knew that that wouldn't be received well.

"I need to get that car off the road _without_ making it crash," Blue Beetle said. "Nobody dies today. Especially not that bastard's hostage."

_**(…I have an idea.)**_

"Let's hear it," Blue Beetle said.

The scarab told her. The armored superwoman's eyes widened. "You're insane."

_**(You have a better plan?)**_ The scarab countered, and she could feel it mentally grinning.

"No," Blue Beetle admitted with a sigh, putting on an extra burst of speed.

Soon, she had positioned herself directly over the speeding car and carefully began to decrease her altitude so she was within arms length of the roof of the car.

The driver, however, was not oblivious to her presence. Holding onto the wheel with only one hand, he picked up his weapon again and pointed it upwards. Satisfied that there was no way he could miss, he squeezed the trigger.

There was another terrific blast of noise, but this time his shot went completely wild and the shot sprayed harmlessly out his window. He would have hit his target, but the whole car had jolted when Blue Beetle had grabbed hold of the roof and lifted it into the air.

"…the _hell_ are you doing?" the driver demanded as his vehicle was lifted higher and higher, its wheels now spinning pointlessly in the air. The roof of the car creaked and bent slightly, never having been designed for the stress it was being subjected to.

"Taking a huge creep off the road!" Blue Beetle retorted as she continued to fly through the city. "Now, why don't we talk about this calmly? If you cooperate, a jury might show you some mercy, and in case you haven't noticed, you don't have a lot of options."

"No! _You_ don't have a lot of options!" the driver barked, leveling his gun at the bound woman in his back seat.

Blue Beetle's eyes widened, and she cursed inwardly. She should have figured out some way of getting the bastard's hostage to safety before she did this.

"Don't do it," she growled at him.

"If you want her to live, then you're going to take me outside the city and put the car down nice and gently," the driver demanded, "or I'll kill her!"

"If you kill her, I'll kill you!" Blue Beetle snapped.

_**(Slowly!)**_ The scarab piped up.

"Slowly!" Blue Beetle added.

The driver of the now airborne car smirked. "Mexican standoff, girlie."

"Yes, but time isn't on your side, jackass," Blue Beetle snapped.

The driver looked confused.

Blue Beetle smiled maliciously at him. "My arms are already starting to get tired here."

The driver's face paled and he looked out the window and down at the street below, realizing just how high up they'd gotten. A fall from this distance would be lethal for sure.

"So let's be reasonable here, big man," Blue Beetle sneered. "You agree to let her go, and I don't let you go splat. In fact, I'll even fly you outside of the city just like you want."

"Oh, please, the second she's safe, you're gonna grab me and haul me to the cops," the driver scoffed. "So if you want this bitch to live that much, just let us go."

"I'm not letting you leave with her," Blue Beetle said firmly.

"And I'm not letting you take her away," the man retorted.

"Time still isn't on your side," Blue Beetle reminded him.

"Actually, I think it is," the man replied confidently. "You're not gonna let this car drop and kill that bitch in the back seat just because your arms got tired. You're gonna have no choice but to put us down and let us go, eventually."

Blue Beetle was silent for a long moment.

"Well, I have to hand it to you," she said. "You have a serious pair."

The man smiled triumphantly.

"Unfortunately for you, you're also an arrogant jackass, and just plain wrong," Blue Beetle added. "Happy landings."

"What? Hey! Wait! Nooo!" the man screamed as Blue Beetle released her hold of the car roof.

The car went plummeting downwards, heading straight for Lake Ashi, which the azure superwoman had carefully positioned them above before dropping the vehicle.

However, Blue Beetle wasn't done yet. She gave the scarab a mental command, and it immediately took over control of their flight, guiding them far more precisely than she could have. In a second, they were right next to the passenger side rear door of the falling car, descending at the exact same rate it was.

With a thought, Blue Beetle caused the armor over her hands to shift and change, becoming long, thin blades that were curved at the ends. Using them as a makeshift Jaws of Life, she easily tore off the door.

_**(Hurry!)**_ The scarab urged.

Not wasting any time replying, Blue Beetle commanded the armor to change back to its usual setting. The process took only seconds, but those seconds were some of the longest that she had ever experienced.

Finally, she was able to use her hands again and she grabbed the bound woman in the back. Pulling her out of the vehicle, the Blue Beetle reclaimed control of her flight and soared upwards, but still only narrowly avoided getting splashed by the water that was thrown up when the car hit the surface of the lake.

"It's okay," Blue Beetle told the woman she held in her arms. "You're safe now."

The woman still had a mouth stuffed full of nylon and couldn't answer, but the relief in her eyes was unmistakable.

_Scarab, medical scan,_ she ordered silently.

_**(Other than some bruising and a little malnutrition, I don't see anything wrong with her.)**_ The scarab informed her.

_Malnutrition?_ Blue Beetle asked, concerned. Her mind immediately began to weave all sort of ghastly possibilities in which the man who'd been holding her hostage had kept her prisoner in his home for possibly months on end, barely feeding her the whole time.

_**(She hasn't been getting enough protein. I believe she's more or less on what you would call 'the Misato diet.')**_ The scarab answered, sounding amused.

_In other words, lots of cup ramen and other instant junk,_ Blue Beetle thought, feeling relieved as her imaginings proved to be just that.

_**(By the way, in case you're wondering, the man survived the fall without any significant injuries.)**_ The scarab added.

Blue Beetle spared a glance downwards, and spotted the man swimming toward the shore. He couldn't hope to escape, however; police cars were already pulling up to the edge of the lake to wait for him. And his weapon would be useless after the thorough soaking it had doubtlessly received, assuming he'd even managed to keep it from sinking to the bottom of the lake.

Turning her attention back to the young woman in her arms, Blue Beetle quickly landed atop the roof of a nearby building and put her down. In a moment, she had freed her from her bonds and removed the crumpled up stocking from her mouth.

"Are you all—?"

Blue Beetle was cut off as the woman threw herself at the azure superwoman, embracing her in a tight hug and stammering out words of gratitude in such a crazed rush that they were barely comprehensible.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," the woman said, half sobbing. "I thought I was going to die for sure!"

Blue Beetle awkwardly put her arms around the frantic woman, holding back a sigh.

_Now, if I was a man, this would be the part where I sweep the damsel off her feet,_ she thought. _But what the heck am _I_ supposed to do?_

"Um, there, there," she said, trying to sound comforting but knowing she probably just sounded uncomfortable. "It all right. You're safe now."

"I knew that he was starting to lose it. I _knew_ it, but I just didn't have the guts to walk out," the woman chastised herself. "I almost died because I was a coward."

"Hey, it's all right, you're safe now. No one's going to hurt you," Blue Beetle said. Then, after a brief pause, added, "What's your name?"

"Azumi," the young woman answered with a small sniffle.

"Well, Azumi, is there any place I can take you?" Blue Beetle asked.

Part of the azure superwoman was very eager to be away from Azumi, now that she was out of immediate danger; the whole situation was very quickly becoming awkward and extremely uncomfortable. However, she still felt empathy for the abused woman, and she didn't want to just abandon her, especially since Azumi was only half-dressed.

"I guess my mother's is the only place I can go now," Azumi said.

"Tell me address," Blue Beetle said.

Azumi did, and soon the insectoid heroine was again flying through the air, carrying Azumi in her arms. Blue Beetle went at a leisurely, relaxed pace, not wanting to make the flight unpleasant for her passenger.

"What happens now?" Azumi asked after a long period of silence.

"Well first, I'm taking you to your mother's home, and you're going to have a shower, get dressed, eat something, and just try to relax after this experience," Blue Beetle said. "After that, you're probably going to have to testify against that man."

"Oh," Azumi said fearfully. "I'm not sure I can do that."

"Of course you can," Blue Beetle said, trying to encourage the battered woman.

Azumi shook her head. "I'm not brave like you are."

Blue Beetle almost laughed aloud at that comment. Her? Brave? She didn't think she'd ever heard anything so preposterous. She had settled in to meekly accepting Gendo's actions a long time ago, and only finding the scarab at the exact right moment had gotten her off that fatal course.

"Hey, I'm really not as brave as you think," Blue Beetle said.

Azumi released an unladylike snort in response to _that_.

"And you're not as cowardly as you think," Blue Beetle said. "The only real difference between you and me is that I've got a…friend I know I can rely on to back me up and support me."

Knowing that she was talking about it, the scarab preened wordlessly.

"And the superpowers," Azumi added wryly.

"And the superpowers," Blue Beetle agreed. "But you don't need to start picking up cars and the like. You just need to get your life back on track and make sure that bastard gets thrown in jail where he belongs."

"I… thank you," Azumi said.

As if on cue, Blue Beetle arrived at the apartment building where Azumi's mother lived. She came to a gentle landing on the roof and set her passenger down on her feet.

"Is this all right?" Blue Beetle asked. "I could take you down to the street if you need."

"No, I'd rather enter this way," Azumi said, gesturing toward a door that led into the building. "I really don't want to be seen outside like this."

"All right," Blue Beetle said. "Well, I guess this is where we part ways."

Azumi nodded. "Thank you," she said. "I don't know how I could ever repay you."

"Just don't let that evil man scare you into letting him get away, and we'll call it even," Blue Beetle said. "Ja ne."

And with that she returned to the air, though she surreptitiously circled the apartment building a few times, just to make sure that Azumi got inside all right. Once the young woman had disappeared from sight, Blue Beetle randomly picked a direction and flew off.

"You picking up anything else interesting on the police broadcasts?" she asked the scarab.

_**(Nothing yet.)**_ The scarab answered.

Blue Beetle wasn't too fussed about the absence of other emergencies for her to address at the moment. Holo-Ritsuko was filling in for her at work, as she had already a few times without incident, and the Blue Beetle already had a good reputation as a heroine around the city. She still wanted to kill an Angel, but that, of course, had to wait until one would be good enough to show up.

So she contented herself to flying around the city, which was usually something that brought her no small amount of pleasure. However, as she continued to soar, and the immediate satisfaction over helping Azumi started to fade, her mind drifted back to her current problems.

She sighed.

_**(Are you getting depressed **_**again?**_**)**_ The scarab asked her.

It sounded so comically exasperated that Blue Beetle couldn't help but crack a small smile. "Yeah, I guess I am," she confessed.

_**(What's got you down this time?)**_ The scarab asked.

"I thought that you could read my mind," Blue Beetle replied. "Share my thoughts and all that."

_**(Oh, I can, you know that. But that doesn't mean I understand your every thought. In fact, I have a hard time understanding your thought processes more often than not.) **_The scarab replied, sounding mildly miffed at her and the confusing species that was humanity in general.

Blue Beetle smirked at the irony. The scarab was literally hooked up right to her central nervous system, and they _still_ had so much trouble understanding one another. There had to be some sort of social commentary to be had there, or something.

_Of course, the fact that it's an alien probably doesn't help,_ she thought.

"I guess I've just been feeling a little lonely recently," she told the scarab.

_**(How could you be feeling lonely? You're **_**never**_** alone.)**_ The scarab pointed out, clearly confused.

Again, Blue Beetle couldn't help but smile slightly. Things were always so simple so far as the extraterrestrial intelligence was concerned.

"I guess I'm just missing _human_ companionship," she replied.

_**(You're not thinking about…?)**_

"Going back to Gendo?" Blue Beetle asked. "God, no. It's just Misato and I haven't been on very good terms recently, so even when I can find some time to just relax, I don't have anyone to spend it with."

She had known, of course, that the Operations Director wouldn't take well to being so obviously shut out of her friend's plans. However, in the last few days, Misato had been positively chilly to her, and, on top of that, she had done her damnedest to keep Ritsuko away from Shinji as much as possible, seemingly just for good measure. Blue Beetle hadn't expected to receive the cold shoulder from Misato to the degree that she had.

_**(I thought you were going to spend time with that Maya girl. You went out for drinks with her a few days ago.)**_ The scarab said. _**(She's cute.)**_

Blue Beetle rolled her eyes. "Now you're starting to sound like Kaji."

_**(What's wrong with that?)**_ The scarab asked.

Deciding that she simply wasn't ready for _that_ very long conversation, Blue Beetle returned to the earlier subject of their discussion. "Maya isn't exactly as much fun to spend time with as Misato."

This was something of understatement. Blue Beetle genuinely liked the petite brunette, and the technician was an exemplary worker. Unfortunately, Maya had apparently felt compelled to keep talking about MAGI diagnostics and the like while they were at a nightclub, apparently unable to leave work at work while she was around the Project-E Chairperson. Even worse, the small woman had proven to be such a complete lightweight that the evening had ended early, with Ritsuko having to practically carry Maya back to her apartment.

Blue Beetle could feel herself blushing behind her helmet at the mere memory of being caught by Maya's elderly neighbor, a Mrs. Takanawa. The old bat had point blank refused to believe Ritsuko's story that the two of them were just friends, and had instead been clearly of the belief that they were lesbians about to hop into bed for drunken lovemaking.

It rather ashamed Blue Beetle to realize that she was _still_ wondering if Maya had ever given the old woman a good reason to believe that her next door neighbor was a lesbian.

_**(Isn't there anyone else you could spend your free time with?)**_ The scarab asked.

"I don't have a whole lot of friends," Blue Beetle said. "I never did."

_**(Ugh. Just go back to work before we end up watching teary movies tonight, and I have to work to keep you from gaining ten kilos from the gallon of ice cream you'll eat while watching it.)**_ The scarab said.

Blue Beetle snorted at the mental image of her behaving like the stereotypical, depressed woman. Exasperating as the scarab could be, she had to admit that it never let her sink into depression. "What work should I go back to?" she asked. "I sort of have two jobs, as you know."

_**(Either one. Just get your mind off of all this.)**_ The scarab urged.

"All right," Blue Beetle said. "I don't suppose there are any disasters going on down there now?" she asked hopefully.

_**(No, nothing that I can detect.)**_ The scarab answered, obviously disappointed.

"Damn, guess that means I have to get back to my day job, then," Blue Beetle said. "Shift me."

_**(Roger.)**_ The scarab replied, and Blue Beetle soon felt a now familiar tingling sensation that told her she'd been shifted slightly out of phase with the rest of reality.

As undetectable and as intangible as a ghost, Blue Beetle returned to NERV headquarters. She made her way to one of the ladies' lavatories, where the scarab had directed holo-Ritsuko to. Her doppelganger was waiting for her in one of the stalls, and Blue Beetle flew into it and landed, the scarab shifting her back into alignment with the rest of the universe as she did so.

"Everything going well?" Blue Beetle asked.

"Fine, fine," holo-Ritsuko replied. "Just the usual routine. The scarab can fill you in on any details you need, of course."

"Right," Blue Beetle said. "In that case, I'll take it from here."

Nodding, holo-Ritsuko promptly disappeared, leaving only the projector in its place. Blue Beetle shed her armor, once again becoming Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, and scooped up the device, placing it into one of her lab coat's large pockets.

"Best gadget I ever made," Ritsuko commented to herself as she left the stall.

Returning to her office, Ritsuko sat down at her desk and got to work. However, there weren't very many urgent tasks before her; her holographic double was at least as industrious as she was. It didn't help Ritsuko that she was just coming back from the adrenaline rush-inducing activities that went with being a superwoman. The blonde soon began to fidget in her seat, and she found that she had difficulty keeping her focus on her current task.

Her work ethic kept her in her seat for all of five minutes after she realized she wasn't going to get much done, at least until she had really let herself unwind. Getting up, she left her office and made her way to a nearby group of vending machines. Popping several coins into one, she made it relinquish a can of coffee.

Then, after considering for a moment, she inserted a few more coins and got another can of coffee. Taking the two containers, she headed, not back to her own office, but toward Misato's.

"Knock, knock," she said as she arrived at the open door to the Ops Director's personal workspace.

Misato looked up from the paperwork she'd been doing with a look of surprise.

"Well now, this _is_ a role reversal," the purple haired woman commented sardonically, as it was usually she who pestered Ritsuko while the scientist was trying to work.

"Yeah, I guess it is," Ritsuko said. "Coffee?"

"Thank you," Misato said curtly.

She took the can, opened it, and then took a long drink. Ritsuko did the same.

Neither of them spoke.

_**(If you're just going to stand there silently and feel awkward, you might as well just leave.)**_ The scarab commented.

"Come on, Misato, you know you could never keep up the silent treatment for very long," Ritsuko urged.

"My dad would say different if he was around," Misato replied.

Ritsuko resisted the urge to rip out her own hair in her frustration, wondering if pulling the world back from the precipice of the abyss (or trying to, anyway) was really going to require that she sacrifice her friendship with her best, and really only, friend.

"Misato, why are you being so—"

_**(Ritsuko!)**_ The scarab shouted, interrupting her.

_What?_ She demanded. _What's so important that—?_

The scientist was interrupted again, this time by the wailing of the all too familiar klaxons, and Misato instantly jumped to her feet.

The Twelfth Angel had apparently come to town at last.

* * *

Shinji Ikari had learned how to do a lot of things in EVA that he hadn't had the first clue about when he'd first been forced to climb into the entry plug.

He could now, for instance, competently wield Unit One's progressive knife, utilize his AT field, and he knew how to fright with various different kinds of giant firearms.

However, one thing that he'd never exactly been trained for, and had certainly never expected to do, was to be stealthy while in the giant death machine. Yet that was just what he was doing, making Unit One creep through the city and use the skyscrapers as cover as he approached the Angel, which had given no indication that it realized the Evangelions were even there yet.

This latest Angel had taken a decidedly strange form, appearing as a zebra striped sphere that hovered slowly over the city, completely silent.

"We're still getting an orange pattern from the Angel," Ritsuko told the three pilots over the radio. "So far, the MAGI is still trying to get information on this one, but they're not having any success yet."

"Which means that all of you are to exercise _extreme_ caution until we understand this Angel better," Misato chimed in. "Asuka, I want you to take point."

"Oh, but shouldn't the brave new number one pilot take point?" Asuka asked in a far too innocent tone.

Shinji visibly started within the entry plug, unable to believe what he was hearing. Asuka heaping praise upon him was incredible enough, but her wanting him to take point, too? Pretty much from the moment she'd arrived in Japan, the Second Child had tried to play field commander of the Evangelions, even though their direct link to headquarters almost always made that unnecessary.

"You _are_ brave enough to take point, right?" Asuka asked Shinji, opening a direct link between their two Evangelions.

Shinji bristled at the obvious challenge, his hands clenching into fists as his long dormant ego suddenly woke up and started kicking. The redhead had put him down at every opportunity, and now that he'd finally beaten her score, she was deliberately putting him on the spot. He suddenly burned with the desire to tear the Angel apart and make Asuka wish she'd kept her big mouth shut.

But then, almost in counterpoint, he remembered what Ritsuko had told him days earlier about not throwing his heart and soul into something that had been forced upon him to begin with. The last few battles had gone relatively smoothly, but not enough to make him forget that he could very well die during a confrontation with an Angel.

The Third Child hesitated, caught between sound advice and a rare but intense desire to one up the Second Child.

And Misato seized upon the moment this provided her.

"In case you've forgotten, you don't get to decide who leads by committee," the Operations Director said sternly. "I'm in command of this operation, not any of you, and I say that Asuka takes point."

"Roger!" Shinji and Asuka both said automatically.

That matter taken care of, all three Evangelions continued to creep closer and closer to the Angel. Unit One got there first, largely because it had emerged closest to the Angel when they'd all been deployed. Shinji waited patiently for the other two EVA Units to approach. The Angel continued to act completely oblivious to the presence of the trio of death machines.

"All right, everybody's in position," Asuka finally reported.

"Then commence the attack," Misato said.

Shinji fired first; the Third Child had become more and more tense as the minutes of stalking the Angel had dragged on, until he was a tightly coiled spring. He commanded Unit One to depress the trigger of the Evangelion pistol he held before Misato was even finished speaking.

His aim was true, not that it was very hard to hit the immense sphere. Shells the size of small cars flew right into the Angel…causing it to instantly wink out of existence.

Chaos followed this bizarre occurrence.

"What the hell?" Shinji exclaimed.

"It vanished!" Asuka shouted.

"Pattern blue!" Hyuga added. "Angel confirmed!"

Shinji suddenly realized that the ground beneath Unit One's feet had turned as black as midnight, and he wasn't the only one to notice.

"What? A shadow!" Asuka yelled.

The feet of all three Evangelion Units began to sink into the inky darkness. Feeling panic rear up and threaten to overwhelm him, Shinji pointed the pistol his EVA was holding and fired several shots right into blackness beneath him. The slugs disappeared into the abyss without doing any visible damage to the Angel.

"Retreat!" Misato shouted, easily making herself heard over the din in the command center.

The Third Child commanded Unit One to raise its feet, hoping he could still run away. But the Angel proved more difficult to escape from than quicksand, and he couldn't easily free his EVA from it.

_I need something to grab onto,_ he decided.

Unit One immediately grasped onto a nearby building, its fingers digging into the sides of the walls and deforming the metal with ease. With a grunt of effort, Shinji forced his Evangelion to pull itself out of the Angel and begin climbing the side of the building.

_I'm going to make it! I'm going to make it!_ He thought, a desperate sort of hope filling him as he scaled the side of the structure. _I'm going to make it! I'm going…why am I going down again!_

Against his better judgment, he directed his gaze toward the ground…and he felt his face pale at what he saw. The building he was climbing was sinking! In fact, every building within the circumference of the bizarre Angel was starting to sink into it.

_Okay, you can still get away,_ he told himself. _Just get to the top of the building, and use Asuka's crazy 'hopscotch' trick to escape._

He felt that something was wrong before he realized what it was, registering the way the weight of his EVA and himself were shifting at a subconscious level.

"Oh no!" he exclaimed as he finally pieced together what was the matter.

The building he was climbing up was tilting, and to make matters worse, it was tilting _toward_ him.

"Crap!" he shouted, and threw Unit One into a frantic burst of climbing, scaling the side of the building almost completely in seconds flat.

He might have made it, too. For a second, it seemed like he was going to make it. However, the frantic Third Child had failed to consider the way that moving the weight of his Evangelion from the bottom of the building to the top of the building would affect its descent. Just as it looked like he might have been home free, the slow tilt of the building abruptly accelerated. In seconds, it would crash into the vast lake of darkness beneath him.

Knowing that it probably wasn't going to work but having no other choice, Shinji commanded Unit One to leap away before it was too late, silently hoping and praying that he would reach another perch.

The purple and green destroyer went soaring through the air, arms and legs flailing wildly as it reached out for another more stable building…and missed.

"_No!_" Shinji yelled as Unit One crashed right into the ebony blackness of the Angel.

* * *

"Shinji-kun!" Misato shouted, able to do nothing else but stare at the huge main screen as Evangelion Unit One vanished into the darkness.

"No," Ritsuko breathed next to her.

The Operations Director spared just a moment to toss the scientist an angry glare before directing her full attention back to the battle, which was quickly turning into a full blown catastrophe.

"Asuka! Rei!" she barked. "Rescue Shinji!"

"Little busy here, Misato!" Asuka replied, as Unit Two leapt from rooftop to rooftop in an attempt to avoid getting swallowed up by the Angel.

"On my way!" Rei said.

Unit Zero, Misato realized too late, had almost been out of the danger zone when she'd given that command. And Rei, without a second thought, threw away her chance of safety to head back toward the center of the Angel.

The Operations Director cursed herself as she realized that she'd gotten emotional and given a bad order. But Unit Zero moved like lightning, despite the First Child's relatively low sync ratio. The blue Evangelion was already drawing near to where Unit One had sunk into the Angel, though; it was too late to countermand the order.

Hoping that her bad decision wouldn't bite her in the ass, Misato resisted the urge to wring her hands as she watched Unit Zero carefully draw near to Unit One's umbilical cable. The blue behemoth grabbed hold of the massive power cable and began to pull. Misato felt her heart leap she started to pull some of the length of the cable out of the Angel.

And then the Angel pulled back, catching Rei completely by surprise. The First Child made a valiant attempt to keep Unit Zero stable, but it was short-lived, and in seconds, the cyclopean Evangelion had fallen into the artificial blackness of the Twelfth Angel. It disappeared from view seconds later.

"Asuka! Get out of there!" Misato ordered, unwilling to lose all three Evangelions to one Angel.

"I'm trying!" the Second Child retorted.

Unit Two was still hopping crazily from rooftop to rooftop, but as more and more buildings toppled over and were swallowed completely by the Angel, the red titan was rapidly running out of stepping stones.

Yet in spite of the rapidly worsening situation, Asuka was making good progress, and Misato held out hope that she, at least, would escape. Within moments, the red Evangelion was almost to safety, but it was also standing on one of the last of the buildings. It was going to have to jump.

Fortunately, Misato had seen Evangelions make longer leaps than that.

Unit Two squatted down and jumped. The arc of its leap was just right, everyone could see at once. Asuka was going to escape; at least one pilot was going to make it out of this disaster without being swallowed by the Angel.

Then the production-model Evangelion's umbilical cable ran out of slack. Asuka let out a loud yelp as her jump was rudely interrupted and immediately ejected the cable, but it was too late. The treacherous cord had robbed Unit Two of much of its needed momentum, and it couldn't make it beyond the edge of the Angel any longer.

Unit Two crashed into the blackness and began to sink almost instantly. Defiant as ever, the scarlet giant managed to reach out and lay a hand onto the street just outside the Angel's dark shadow, causing the asphalt to shatter. For a brief moment, it looked as though Unit Two might just make it out yet.

Then, as though a giant hand within the blackness had grabbed hold of the crimson war machine's ankle and pulled, Unit Two was abruptly yanked into the abyss and disappeared along with the other Evangelions.

"No," Misato breathed softly. "Oh, no."

All three Evangelions had been consumed by the Angel.

* * *

About an hour later found much of NERV's senior command staff and scientists in a hastily erected outpost outside the Twelfth Angel which had, wonder of wonders, just stopped moving entirely once it swallowed up the trio of Evangelions.

Ritsuko was currently standing before a large white board, using a long pointer to indicate specific diagrams and equations as she spoke to a group of scientists.

"Here's what we've learned so far," she said. "That sphere up there is _not_ the Angel. It's actually the Angel's shadow, while what we thought was the shadow is the real Angel. It is 680 meters wide, but only 3 nanometers thick, making it essentially two-dimensional. Unlike all the other Angels, this one possesses an inverted AT field, which is how it was able to absorb so much matter. Within the Angel's body is something known as a Dirac Sea, a sort of pocket dimension which was only theoretical until today. And that, unfortunately, is all we know so far, and that's not going to cut it. Not even close. So I expect you people to be complete professionals in the coming hours. We're working on a tight deadline here."

Taking the dismissal for what it was, the assembled group of NERV scientists rose from their chairs and began to disperse, heading off to their respective tasks. Ritsuko herself was just about to start making her way to her personal workstation when she spotted someone in a very familiar red NERV officer's jacket approaching her.

"Ritsuko, I need to speak you. In private," Misato said without preamble.

The scientist considered making some comment about how Misato only wanted to speak to her now that she was busy, but she restrained herself. "Of course," she said.

Ritsuko led Misato to one of the trailers that was part of the impromptu NERV outpost and then shut the door after them once they were inside.

"Ritsuko—" Misato began, but the blonde held up a hand to silence her.

_Scarab, any listening devices in here?_ She asked.

_**(None.)**_

"Sorry," Ritsuko said. "I was checking for bugs."

_**(Ha ha.)**_ The scarab grumbled sarcastically.

"I'm going in after them," Misato announced.

"What?" Ritsuko blinked.

"I'm going in after them," Misato repeated.

As if to clarify the statement, the Operation Director's warm brown eyes suddenly changed to a piercing shade of green, and she held up her fist, displaying the ring of jade metal on her finger.

"I wanted to ask you to try and cover for me," Misato went on. "I know you probably won't be able to pull it off—explaining the absence of the Ops Director at a time like this will be impossible if I'm gone for too long, but I was hoping you could try, anyway. I don't want to blow my secret identity unless I absolutely have to."

"Misato, no, please, don't do this," Ritsuko pleaded. "You could die."

"I have to, Ritsuko," the purple haired woman practically growled. "I can't just abandon those kids when there's a chance I can save them, even if it means risking my own life."

"But, Misato, for all we know, they could already be dead," Ritsuko blurted out.

The scientist was aware of the stinging pain on her cheek before she realized that Misato had slapped her. The scarab hissed angrily in Ritsuko's mind.

"Don't you dare say that!" Misato barked.

"Sorry," Ritsuko said, rubbing her cheek. "Look, Misato, we should still have about fifteen hours left before the Evangelions' internal batteries can't power the life support systems any longer. There's no need for you to rush off half-cocked right now."

"And is this situation going to be any better in fifteen hours?" Misato demanded.

"Yes," Ritsuko said firmly. "I'm going to figure this Angel out, Misato. I swear it. I _promise_ you."

Misato just narrowed her eyes, clearly skeptical.

Ritsuko felt hurt by the other woman's doubt despite herself. The blonde had always made a point of keeping her promises.

"Don't you trust me at all anymore, Misato?" she asked, dismayed. "I'm your friend."

Misato sighed. "I want to trust you, Rits. I really do," she said. "But you've clearly had your own agenda ever since you started doing this Blue Beetle thing. And ever since you started with that, you've been spending time outside of work with Shinji, who is _my_ responsibility, in case you've forgotten. And you won't _tell_ me about any of your plans, which definitely does _not_ fill me with warm and fuzzy feelings. And now you want me to trust you with all the pilots' lives?"

Ritsuko sighed softly. _I've been such an idiot._

_**(Huh?)**_

_This is why Misato's been so hostile. It's not just me keeping her in the dark that's pissing her off. She thinks I might have malicious intensions toward Shinji,_ she answered.

"Misato," Ritsuko said. "All I want to do is help Shinji. I swear on my mother's grave that I don't have anything besides that in mind when I spend time with him, and I'm not focused on anything else but rescuing all the pilots right now."

Misato regarded her silently for a long moment, and then her green eyes became brown once more. "You really think you can figure out a way to get them out?" she asked.

"I have an alien artifact in my back that has enough processing power to put the MAGI to shame," Ritsuko said. "I can solve this puzzle. I know I can."

Misato nodded. "I'll give you four hours. Then I'm going in."

"Four hours? But that's barely more than a quarter of the time we have left!" Ritsuko protested.

"Well there's no point in me going in _after_ we're out of time," Misato responded. "Four hours, Rits."

And with that, the Operations Director and Green Lantern left the trailer, leaving Ritsuko with a significantly shorter deadline than she'd had before.

* * *

_Four hours later…_

"Well, Ritsuko?" Misato asked, approaching the blonde scientist, who was furiously scribbling away at her whiteboard.

"I've managed to figure out a lot about the Angel," Ritsuko said, barely pausing in her work long enough to spare her friend a glance. "For one thing, I've worked out that the inside of the Angel is shaped like a giant Klein Bottle."

"Klein Bottle?" Misato echoed, not particularly interested, but knowing Ritsuko well enough to realize that the scientist wouldn't be able to focus on anything else until she'd explained everything she'd learned.

Ritsuko pointed to a crude drawing she'd made on her whiteboard.

"Looks like some kind of squash," Misato commented.

"I guess it does," Ritsuko replied absently. "But this really isn't an accurate depiction, and not just because I'm no artist. A real Klein Bottle is a four-dimensional shape, you see."

"Four-dimensional?"

"Yes," Ritsuko said. "It is a non-orientable surface with no boundary."

"I really hope you don't expect me to understand this," Misato said bluntly.

Ritsuko sighed. "Look, the bottom line is that this Angel is virtually impossible to escape from," she said.

"This is what you've been doing the whole time?" Misato demanded. "Figuring out why the Children are all doomed?"

"I've just been studying the Angel," Ritsuko said defensively, then leaned in close to Misato and added in a conspiratorial whisper, "You know what this means, don't you? If you go in there after them, the odds of you getting out again are infinitesimal."

"Never tell me the odds, Ritsuko," Misato said.

The scientist resisted the urge to groan. She had just _known_ Misato would say that ever since NERV had defeated the Tenth Angel.

"You can't hope to go in there and come out, but I can," Ritsuko said.

Misato frowned. "Why?"

"Thanks to the scarab, I can teleport to this place between dimensions called the Bleed," Ritsuko said. "I can go in, find the EVA's, and get them out by going out through that place."

Ritsuko could clearly see suspicion in Misato's eyes. A long, tense moment followed.

"I just hope you realize that with you gone, there's no one left to convince me not to head in there as soon as I think something's wrong," Misato said at last.

Ritsuko let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Thanks, Misato," she said. "Could you come with me for a second?"

Shrugging, the Operations Director followed the scientist back to the little trailer. Once they were inside, Ritsuko wordlessly took the projector out of her pocket and set it on the floor. A moment later, it had activated, and holo-Ritsuko had joined them.

"Whoa!" Misato exclaimed. "Double trouble!"

"I like to think of us as 'doublicious.' Speaking of which…" the hologram reached into her pocket and withdrew something wrapped in silver foil. "Gum?"

"Uh, no, thanks," Misato said.

"Don't mind her," Ritsuko said. "The scarab's just making her act snarky because it can get away with it right now."

Misato nodded. "I'd been wondering how the Blue Beetle managed to save people while you were at NERV."

"This is how I pull it off," Ritsuko confirmed. "But the illusion won't be as good once I'm inside the Angel and can't be connected to this thing anymore. It'll still look and sound fine, but it might say the wrong thing in response to something somebody else says. I'd like it if you could hang around her and try to cover up any stumbles."

Misato shook her head at being relegated to the role she had asked Ritsuko to take up only hours before. "All right," she agreed. "But be quick about this."

"As quick as I can," Ritsuko promised, and told the scarab to suit her up.

Almost instantly, she was in the familiar blue and black, and Ritsuko Akagi vanished beneath the visage of the Blue Beetle. The scarab then phase shifted her, and she vanished from sight.

"Okay, scarab, let's go," she said.

Immediately, the Blue Beetle took off, her intangible form flying straight through the walls of the trailer and toward the Angel. The azure superwoman couldn't help but swallow as she looked into the pitch black maw of the Twelfth Angel.

_I know that I wanted to kill an Angel,_ she thought. _But I was really hoping that the next one to show up would be a regular, giant monster type Angel._

For once, the scarab seemed to share in her trepidation; she could feel it. _**(Well…let's go.)**_ It said without much enthusiasm.

Nodding, Blue Beetle altered her course so that she was in a power dive toward the Angel. Her heart started to hammer as she approached it, and for a moment, she seriously considered pulling up and scraping her entire plan. How on Earth had Misato been so gung ho about doing this herself?

Then she passed the threshold of the Angel, and it was like she had just stepped outside of the universe she had always known. The boundary of the Angel was instantly nowhere to be found; it was like she was in the middle of outer space, except that there was not a star to be found as far as the eye could see. She was in the middle of total and complete emptiness.

The Blue Beetle shivered, and not just because of how devoid of everything the place she'd found herself in was.

_**(I'm adjusting the armor's climate controls to increase the temperature.)**_ The scarab said contritely before she could speak up. _**(I didn't expect it to be so cold in here.)**_

"Good," Blue Beetle said, and was surprised for some reason that her voice didn't echo in the vast nothingness, even though she knew that it shouldn't. "Now, we don't have a lot of time before, Misato…"

She trailed off, suddenly getting the feeling that someone was watching her. Blue Beetle had never gotten this sensation so strongly; it was as undeniable as the feeling of the sun on her back, except that it was cold.

Slowly, and with no small amount of anxiety, she turned.

Blue Beetle thought she felt her heart stop as she saw what was behind her.

Naoko Akagi was behind her, floating in the blackness without any sort of protection. And this wasn't Naoko Akagi as scientist, the one Ritsuko was most familiar with and respected. Nor was it Naoko Akagi as mother, the one Ritsuko had so rarely seen. Nor was it Naoko Akagi as woman, the one Ritsuko had held nothing but contempt for but had ended up emulating anyway.

No, this was a Naoko Akagi that Ritsuko had seen only once, and the last Naoko Akagi to ever exist: Naoko Akagi as madwoman. She looked almost exactly as she had the last time Ritsuko had seen her, on that yerrible day when the first Project-E Chairperson had snapped, murdered Rei's first incarnation, and then killed herself. Her usually immaculate white lab coat was stained red with blood, and part of her skull was crushed from the leap she'd taken off the top tier of the command center, exposing bits of brain matter.

The only difference that this Naoko showed from the version that was burned into Ritsuko's memory was the glowing, reddish mass she had covering part of her face and body. Blue Beetle knew exactly what that was; she had seen it when she'd used the scarab to connect her mind directly to the MAGI. The Eleventh Angel had taken the worst part of her mother and made it even worse.

"Ritsuko-chan," Naoko gave her daughter a smile that looked truly grotesque on her ruined face. "Come to Mommy."

"_No!_" Blue Beetle shrieked.

The armor over her hand instantly transformed into the annihilator ray, the weapon that the scarab had always been so eager to use. For once, Blue Beetle didn't hesitate at all, and fired, sending a blast of dark blue light shooting from the barrel.

The deadly energy hit Naoko Akagi right in the torso and went through the woman like she was made of smoke, leaving no visible mark on her.

The elder Doctor Akagi smirked. "Do you really think it would be that easy to kill me? I'm already dead," she stated smugly. "Now, come here, Ritsuko-chan. It's time you _finished_ following in my footsteps, all the way to the grave."

"No!" Blue Beetle yelled, panic overwhelming her calculating scientist's mind. "NO!"

_**(RITSUKO!)**_ The scarab roared, and only belatedly did the Blue Beetle realize that it had been shouting at her all this time. _**(She's **_**not**_** real!)**_

"Wha-what?" she stammered.

_**(I know what you're seeing because of my link to your mind, but **_**I**_** can't see it!)**_ The scarab said. _**(Or detect it all, for that matter! What you're seeing isn't real! It must be the Angel trying to trick you!)**_

"I…I'm not sure I can make myself believe that," Blue Beetle said in a small voice.

It was an embarrassing admission for the scientist to make; she usually prided herself upon not letting her emotions affect her judgment. Oftentimes, people knew things intellectually but didn't act on them because they didn't know those things emotionally, too, and she usually felt naught but contempt for such individuals.

But with someone or something that looked just like the malicious ghost of her mother, bonded to an Angel, looming over her, Blue Beetle just couldn't make herself act like the guise of Naoko Akagi wasn't there.

_**(Close your eyes.)**_ The scarab said. _**(I can take us to the Evangelions.)**_

Blue Beetle had her doubts about relinquishing the proverbial steering wheel to the scarab, but she herself was frozen with fear. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and immediately she could feel herself starting to move through the blackness.

But she couldn't escape her mother's voice. Naoko's words followed them no matter how fast the scarab made them go, reminding Blue Beetle of all the similarities between them and urging her to end it all like she had. Even worse, other voices soon joined in. She heard Gendo telling her that she wouldn't evade his detection forever, Fuyutski wondering tiredly why she had thought she could ever fight and win against forces like SEELE, and a hundred other voices saying things she didn't want to hear.

Shinji's soft, forlorn voice was the worst though. The Third Child spoke in resigned tones about how she couldn't save him, or anyone, and how she had been foolish to try.

_I'll never have to go to see a horror movie again,_ she thought, resisting the temptation to open her eyes and face her tormentors, to see if they were really all there or just disembodied voices. _If I ever want to be scared, all I'll have to do is close my eyes and remember this experience._

"Why isn't the Angel conjuring up any illusions for you?" she asked the scarab.

_**(I don't know.)**_ The scarab answered thoughtfully. _**(It could be that it can't affect me since I'm not from this world. Or it could be because I don't remember my past, so there isn't a whole lot it can do to really disturb me.)**_

The flight lasted an interminable amount of time for the Blue Beetle, though she hoped it wasn't very long in reality. She knew that Misato would follow her in if she took too long.

Finally, Blue Beetle crashed into the side of something very solid, and the voices that tormented her abruptly felt silent, as though the object she'd hit was some island of sanity and stability inside the dark madhouse that was the inside of the Angel's body.

Opening her eyes, and getting up, Blue Beetle saw that she was perched atop Unit One's massive purple helmet. She grinned in relief, glad that the ordeal she was going through wouldn't be for nothing.

"All right, scarab," she said. "Let's get Unit One out of here and into the Bleed, and then back to the real world. And no lost time this time, either!"

_**(You got it.)**_ The scarab said, then, in a less eager voice, added. _**(But you should know that transporting this much mass is probably going to hurt.)**_

"When doesn't it?" Blue Beetle asked with a sigh. "Let's just get this over with scarab."

_**(Roger.)**_ The scarab said, and with that, superwoman and Evangelion Unit disappeared from the Twelfth Angel's trap.

* * *

Moments later, there was a flash of light in the air above Tokyo-3, and suddenly Evangelion Unit One had appeared from nowhere. The purple and green engine of death materialized a few hundred feet above the ground, and it immediately went crashing down to the street, shattering the asphalt and shaking the ground as it landed.

They had emerged from the Bleed not far from the NERV outpost, and within seconds, scientists and uniformed soldiers alike were scrambling toward the Evangelion, which had so unexpectedly been plucked from the jaws of the malevolent god that had invaded the city that day.

Blue Beetle, jauntily perched atop Unit One's shoulder, looked down at everyone with a grin. She soon spotted someone in a familiar red beret who was at the front of the approaching pack, and she gave Misato a small salute. The Ops Director automatically returned the gesture.

Satisfied that her friend hadn't plunged into the abyss and now probably wouldn't, Blue Beetle flew off, heading back toward the Angel. There were still two Evangelions for her to pull out of the darkness.

* * *

_Hours later…_

"How are the Children?" Ritsuko asked Misato.

By this point, twilight had drawn over the city, the setting sun bathing Tokyo-3 in orange light. The Blue Beetle had managed to pull all three of the Children from the Twelfth Angel in what had been, in retrospect, a rather easy rescue. The Twelfth Angel had apparently had no ability to stop her other than to cast its illusions.

Of course, every time she had appeared with a new Evangelion, NERV had launched into a flurry of activity, getting the pilot out and giving him or her a complete physical right on site. Though she had gotten Unit Two out over an hour ago, and had been able to dismiss holo-Ritsuko only minutes after that, she was just now getting an opportunity to speak with Misato.

"Physically they're fine," the Operations Director answered, "but they're all pretty shaken, even Rei. Asuka's the most disturbed, but she's trying to hide it, and she'll never admit it, of course."

_After what I saw in there, I'm not surprised they're all shaken,_ Ritsuko thought.

"Anyway, thanks," Misato said quietly.

Ritsuko smiled. "You're welcome."

"You're still not going to tell me exactly what you're up to, are you?" Misato asked.

"I'm sorry, Misato, but no," Ritsuko said, feeling a guilty squirm in her stomach.

Misato sighed. "If you get in too deep, you'll ask me for help, right?" she asked.

Ritsuko nodded. "I promise."

"Good," Misato said.

"So, now all we have to worry about is the Angel," Ritsuko said, changing the subject as she looked at the massive hole that was now in the center of the city.

Misato sighed tiredly. "Yeah," she agreed. "Though fortunately it doesn't look like we have to be in any rush now. The Angel's remained motionless so far, thank goodness. I don't even want to _think_ about what my in box would look like tomorrow if it ate the whole city."

"Any plans yet on how to deal with it?" Ritsuko asked.

"Your, um, counterpart suggested we chuck every single N2 mine we have into it and detonate them all at once," Misato said.

_**(Oh, I **_**like**_** that plan.)**_ The scarab said, always eager for violence and explosions.

_You would,_ Ritsuko replied, before turning her attention back to Misato.

"Just overwhelm it with as much destructive power as we can bring to bear, huh?" she said. "Well, I suppose it could work, but—"

That was when the zebra-shaped sphere, the Angel's shadow, winked out of existence for a second time that day, vanishing soundlessly. Both women saw it, and after trading a brief, horrified look, they took off running toward the trailer containing the makeshift outpost's mobile command center.

Misato reached the door first, easily outpacing Ritsuko, who was wearing high heels. "Report!" the Ops Director barked as she entered. "Did some idiot shoot that thing?"

"Negative!" Makoto answered. "It just…happened!"

"What's happening?" Ritsuko demanded as she followed her friend inside.

"The shadow of the Angel just spontaneously disappeared, and now its real body is shrinking in diameter," Maya said.

Ritsuko turned to look at one of the screens in the cramped mobile command center, observing as a display of the Angel rapidly decreased in size. At this rate, it would be the size of a puddle in mere minutes.

"Is it…dying?" Misato asked, sounding like she knew it was too good to be true, but hopeful nonetheless.

"I wouldn't bet on it," Aoba said. "Its size is decreasing, but its energy signature is only increasing."

"Then what's happening?" Misato snapped testily. "What's it doing?"

"We don't know yet, ma'am," Maya said. "None of the MAGI are offering an explanation, and this is something completely new in our experience with the Angels."

"The Angel's size appears to have stabilized," Makoto said. "It is now approximately one quarter of its original size."

"It's…it's changing shape!" Maya exclaimed.

"What?" Ritsuko asked, pulling her gaze away from the suddenly jumbled, computer generated diagram of the Angel and looking at a live feed video of it.

Her eyes widened at what she was. In place of the black hole was now a black cloud, and one that was slowly but surely starting to expand.

"What's going on? What's it doing?" Misato demanded.

"It looks like…it looks like it's evolved somehow," Ritsuko said.

"Evolved?"

"Yes, don't you see, Misato?" Ritsuko asked. "The Angel's gone from being a two-dimensional entity to a three-dimensional one."

Remembering her brief spiel about the properties of a Klein Bottle, Ritsuko knew that Misato was just itching to ask how many dimensions it had on the inside _now_. However, the Ops Director resisted the temptation and began rapidly barking out orders to the technicians.

Ritsuko didn't really pay attention to Misato's yelling, instead keeping her attention focused on the Angel. How on Earth had the thing evolved? The Eleventh Angel had managed to undergo rapid evolution, but it had been formed of a collective of cells which reproduced at a _very_ rapid rate. At the end of the day, that had still been more or less evolution as they knew it, even if it had gone at a supercharged pace. But the Twelfth Angel was a single entity, and single entities didn't evolve.

Then it hit her like a bolt from the blue. The only possible explanation for the Angel's abrupt transformation.

_**(The Bleed.)**_ The scarab said before she would even let herself think it. _**(Exposing it to the Bleed must have changed it somehow.)**_

_My god, what have I done?_ Ritsuko wondered as she watched the black mass that was the Angel continue to grow and grow.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** This one was actually supposed to cover all of the battle against the Twelfth Angel, but I guess I just ran out of steam. And this seemed like a good, cliff hanger-y place to stop.

Normally, I don't mess with the Angels too much, just with how the characters respond to them. But this idea just sort of popped into my head, so I decided to run with it.

Those of you who follow both SOE series will probably note how Ritsuko has found a similar solution to the problems of having a double life as Maya did in _The 4th Degree_. I didn't want to have Ritsuko go as far as Maya did in that fic, though, so at the end of the day, holo-Ritsuko is really just an incredible simulation.

And that's all for this note. So thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

Now for some fun.

* * *

Omakes!

Holo-Ritsuko was _not_ created for this

Ritsuko placed the small device on the floor and then pressed a button on the bottom of it. Immediately, the top of the gadget opened, revealing a sort of projector.

A burst of light followed, bright enough to momentarily blind Ritsuko. Blinking away spots, she made a mental note to adjust the device to prevent or at least tone down the intense flash.

Her vision clearing after a few seconds, Ritsuko looked again and found herself face to face with… herself. A perfect duplicate of Ritsuko Akagi stood where her new gadget had been a moment before, standing stock still.

Though she'd been expecting this, it still startled Ritsuko—the real Ritsuko—to see such a flawless copy of herself standing before her.

"Amazing," she said, walking in a slow circle around her duplicate.

She stopped when she was directly behind holo-Ritsuko, this situation giving her a unique opportunity for self-observation.

"Damn," she gave a low whistle. "I have a _smoking_ hot ass. You could bounce quarters off those buns!"

"You're right," holo-Ritsuko agreed, abruptly coming to life and startling the genuine article. "We _are_ pretty damn hot."

Before the real Ritsuko could react, her holographic counterpart had glomped her, and rather aggressively at that. The two blondes tumbled to the ground, one amorous, the other struggling.

"Scarab!" Ritsuko exclaimed, furiously trying to fight off holo-Ritsuko's advances. "Turn the projector off! Turn it off now!"

The scarab, of course, ignored her entirely. _**(I wonder, does this count as incest or narcissism?)**_

* * *

The Angel's Ultimate Attack

Then she passed the threshold of the Angel, and it was like she had just stepped outside of the universe she had always known. The boundary of the Angel was instantly nowhere to be found; it was like she was in the middle of outer space, except that there was not a star to be found as far as the eye could see. She was in the middle of total and complete emptiness.

Blue Beetle spoke. "We don't have a lot of time before Misato…"

She trailed off, suddenly getting the feeling that someone was watching her. Blue Beetle had never gotten this sensation so strongly; it was as undeniable as the feeling of the sun on her back, except that it was cold.

Slowly, and with no small amount of anxiety, she turned.

Blue Beetle thought she felt her heart stop as she saw what was behind her.

A purple and green monster was in the darkness with her, and it _wasn't_ Unit One.

"Hey there, little girl!" giant Barney the dinosaur exclaimed. "We're going to have a good time!"

"AHHHH!" Blue Beetle screamed. "Scarab! Get us out of here, _now!_ Forget the Children!"

However, the scarab was unable to heed her command. It was far too busy screaming inside her mind.

* * *

Set Up

_**(So it's a good thing that the Blue Beetle's on the scene!)**_ The scarab said exuberantly as the superwoman in question chased after the speeding car from the air.

Blue Beetle sighed. "Are you _narrating_ for me?" she asked.

_**(…maybe.)**_

Shaking her head, the superwoman in the blue and black armor decided to ignore her constant companion and put on an extra burst of speed to help her catch up to the speeding car. Within moments, she was flying right alongside the vehicle, and was easily able to look directly at the driver through the window.

What she saw nearly caused her to fall out of the air and to the street in surprise.

"Aoba?" she exclaimed. "Why the hell are you doing this?"

The insectoid superwoman's gaze drifted off to the rear of the car's interior, and she suddenly the situation became even more bizarre than it already was.

In the back seat sat a young woman clad in a top hat, tuxedo vest and shirt, a black mask, and fishnet stockings. She raised a magic wand that she held in one hand.

"Ekat su ot ecalpemos erom elbatrofmoc!" she exclaimed.

Suddenly, the magician and the Blue Beetle both vanished from sight with a puff of smoke.

Aoba quickly turned to look at his car's empty back seat in alarm.

"Hey! Where did you go!" he exclaimed. "You told me you'd help me escape from the cops if I did this! _And what about the three wishes you promised me?_"

Behind him, the police cars started gaining.

* * *

_Elsewhere in Tokyo-3…_

"Ugh, where the hell am I?" Blue Beetle wondered aloud. "And how the hell did that woman teleport us?"

_**(I don't know. She used some kind of energy I'm not familiar with.)**_ The scarab answered worriedly.

Blue Beetle sat up, then blinked as she took in her surroundings. She was in what looked like a posh hotel room, sitting in the middle of a very large, heart shaped bed with red silk sheets.

"Glad to see that you're finally up, sempai."

Blue Beetle's head snapped up to see that the masked woman from earlier had entered through a nearby door, except she wasn't masked any longer.

"Maya?" Blue Beetle exclaimed.

"That's right, sempai," the magician said, twirling the magic wand she held in her fingers.

Except, Blue Beetle realized with trepidation, that she wasn't holding a magic wand any longer. Now she held a riding crop.

_Wow, I guess now I know why that old bat who lives next to her was so convinced that we were lovers,_ Blue Beetle thought.

"Oh, sempai, I'm _so_ glad that we can finally be alone," Maya cooed. "Now, let's lose that armor, shall we?"

She waved her wand, and suddenly Blue Beetle's armor rapidly started to melt away. In seconds, she was left in nothing but her under garments.

"Wow, sempai, I didn't realize you were in such good shape," Maya said, climbing onto the bed and proceeding to crawl toward Ritsuko.

_She's completely lost it,_ the scientist thought. _Scarab, get me out of here!_

_**(…why?)**_

_Why?_

_**(Well, I mean, she's really hot.)**_ The scarab replied. _**(I mean, did you check out the legs on that woman? Yowza!)**_

"Ugh!" Ritsuko exclaimed. "Scarab, _this_ is the reason why I don't want you to be just like Kaji!"


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Six:** There but for the Grace of God…

Only minutes ago, the atmosphere in the Mobile Command Center had been one of weary relief. The three Children and their Evangelions had been plucked from the black maw of the Twelfth Angel, spared from what seemed like inevitable doom thanks to the Blue Beetle. The Angel itself still lived, but it had been motionless, and most of NERV had felt confident that, given enough time, they would figure out a way to destroy it.

But then the Angel had started to change, suddenly becoming a three-dimensional cloud of darkness rather than a two-dimensional black hole, and NERV had realized that this thing wasn't going to give them the luxury of time.

_**(Oh, this isn't good.)**_ The scarab commented as Ritsuko stared at the expanding mass of otherworldly darkness.

It was all Ritsuko could do to keep from retorting aloud. _You have enough processing power to put any computer on this planet to shame, and __**that's**__ the best thing you can come up with to say?_

She could sense the scarab recoiling within her mind, as though it had been stung. Ritsuko instantly felt guilty for blowing up at the scarab when it was herself she was mad at.

There was no doubt in her mind that this was the result of her exposing the Angel to the Bleed while she had rescued the Children, which meant that it was her fault if the Angel now consumed the entire city.

_And who's to say it'll stop at the city?_ She thought grimly. _For all I know, it'll keep growing until it swallows the entire Earth!_

_**(And all this is helping… how exactly?)**_ The scarab asked her.

_Huh?_

_**(Oh, honestly.)**_ It sounded exasperated, as though it had found itself caught in a conversation with a young child.

Which, considering how immaturely the scarab often behaved, was a bit much, in Ritsuko's opinion.

_**(Listen, you had no way of knowing that this would happen, you were just concerned with rescuing the pilots.)**_ The scarab said firmly. _**(This isn't your fault, and feeling guilty about it isn't going to keep the Angel from eating the world like it's a giant blueberry.)**_

_You know, that was a very dramatic and powerful speech until that last part there,_ Ritsuko replied, suddenly fighting to keep a wry smile from forming on her face, despite the dire situation they were in.

Thanks to her mental connection to it, Ritsuko could sense that the scarab would've been scowling if it had a human face. It might have made some retort, but the voice of the blonde's protégé cut it off before it could.

"Sempai, the MAGI have determined that the Angel is now growing at an exponential rate," Maya reported, worry clearly audible in her voice.

Ritsuko's eyes widened. In her career as a scientist, the blonde had seen more than a few graphs depicting exponential growth. In her mind, she could clearly see just such a graph, the curved line going upwards very slowly at first, barely rising above the x-axis.

Until it hit a certain point and the growth rate abruptly shot up, until that little line was nearly vertical.

_If the Angel's allowed to reach that point…_

_**(Bad things will happen.)**_ The scarab finished.

Ritsuko didn't even bother to comment on the scarab's gift for understatement. "We need to scramble the Evangelions, _now!_" she yelled. "If they don't contain that thing with their AT fields, we're all dead!"

"You heard her!" Misato barked when everyone hesitated, unsure whether they should obey the Project-E chairperson's commands in a combat situation. "Do it!"

"Yes, ma'am!" the crew chorused.

Misato walked up next to the blonde as she continued to oversee the frantic proceedings. "I really don't want to send the Children out after what they've endured," she said, quietly enough that nobody besides Ritsuko would hear her. "Are you sure this is necessary?"

"About as sure as I can be," Ritsuko said. "If the EVAs can't hold the line with their AT Fields, then we'll need to evacuate on the double." She added, heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" Misato asked.

"Back to work," Ritsuko said. "Regardless of whether or not the Children can hold the Angel back, I have a feeling that if I don't figure out what exactly happened to it, and fast, we're all done for."

* * *

Thirty minutes later Shinji Ikari was sitting inside the entry plug of Unit One, which was about the last place in the world he wanted to be after what he had just endured. However, when he and his fellow pilots had been ordered to board their Evangelions, Shinji—who at the best of times wasn't a very confrontational person—hadn't had the will to argue.

Asuka had made some noise about it, but even her protests had seemed half-hearted. Shinji couldn't blame her, if she'd seen things similar to what he had witnessed while inside the Twelfth Angel, waiting for the life support systems to fail. Just thinking about it caused him to shiver.

He noticed that the smell of blood inside the plug still seemed particularly strong. That _had_ to be his imagination playing tricks on him, but all the same, Shinji suddenly decided to put all his concentration on the task at hand, rather than think about what he'd experienced earlier.

Unfortunately, that had him focusing on the wall of solid darkness, which was held back from Unit One by the nearly invisible barrier of his AT Field. Asuka and Rei were stationed at separate positions, doing the same. The Angel was currently being forced into a triangular shape by the trio of Evangelions.

Part of him had been terrified at seeing the expanding Angel approach him, and it had taken every bit of his remaining resolve to not send Unit One sprinting in the other direction. If his AT Field had shown any signs of not stopping it, he certainly would have, and any orders to the contrary would be damned.

But it had worked, and for the moment he and the other pilots were holding the line. Or, more accurately, the triangle.

A communications window labeled "FROM MC-01" popped up on his HUD suddenly, showing Misato's face.

"Hey, guys," she said. "How are you doing?"

"I am enduring," Rei reported, another window popping up on Shinji's screen.

"I'm doing just wonderfully," Asuka reported with weary sarcasm, the communications feed from Unit Two joining the others.

"I'm okay, I guess," Shinji said. "I'm starting to feel tired, though."

Keeping an AT Field up with his EVA took a certain mental effort, and Shinji was starting to feel the sort of fatigue that came with concentrating for too long, like he had been studying without a break for hours.

"I just thought I should tell you that Ritsuko and the rest of the scientists are doing everything they can to figure out a way to kill this Angel," Misato said.

"Oh, great, everything's in the hands of Scientist Barbie," Asuka grumbled crabbily.

"Asuka," Misato said, frowning.

"Sorry," the German replied, too drained by her experiences within the Twelfth Angel to really mix it up with the Ops Director.

"Hang in there, guys," Misato said. "We're counting on you."

And with that the conversation ended, and the pilots were left to their dull task once again. Shinji, however, felt a bit better about it; he had faith in Ritsuko, unlike Asuka apparently, and found he was a good bit less worried about the situation now.

_You can do it, Ritsuko,_ he thought.

* * *

"You've completely lost it, Ritsuko," Misato said, "you know that, don't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," the blonde replied, not taking her attention off her whiteboard, which she was scribbling upon without pause.

The Ops Director could only quirk an eyebrow in response to that, thinking that if her friend hadn't qualified for the title of "mad scientist" before, she certainly did now. At the very least, she definitely looked the part now.

Ritsuko's normally neat hairdo was badly mussed by her many hours of work out in the wind of the evacuated city's streets, and her labors inside the Angel probably hadn't helped matters. Her hands were smeared with black in dozens of places from the marker she was using to write on her white board, and her once pristine white coat was similarly stained, having been employed by the scientist as an eraser when she'd lost the one that came with the board. There was also a frantic, almost wild look in her green eyes.

_And yet she could still make most supermodels feel like an ugly duckling,_ Misato mused, absently wondering, not for the first time, who had gotten the better item of power.

"Well, for one thing, all your colleagues have abandoned you. Even Maya gave up on trying to follow what you're doing," the Ops Director said, hooking a thumb toward the area where the rest of Tech Division One had regrouped to work on the problem without Ritsuko, after accepting that the Project-E chairperson had gone temporarily insane.

"They were just slowing me down, anyway," Ritsuko replied.

"Also, I seriously doubt anybody but you could even try to understand what's on that thing," Misato added, indicating the whiteboard, "now matter _how_ many fancy degrees they have."

The blonde blinked, took a step back, and then blinked again. The effect of her work in its entirety jarred her. Just about every available centimeter of the thing had been written upon, in a tiny scrawl that was barely legible, even to her. What few spaces were free of mathematical equations were mostly occupied by her artless diagrams of the Angel, though in one spot she had written the word "Time" in bold, thick kanji, followed by several exclamation points.

"Okay," the blonde said, "that's…"

"Disturbing?" Misato suggested.

"Yes, I suppose," Ritsuko agreed reluctantly. "But given the circumstances…"

"I understand," Misato said, and she did. Hell, on one level, she was actually rather touched that Ritsuko had whipped herself up into such a state in the name of defeating the Angel and saving the pilots.

That didn't necessarily mean she was comfortable with it, though.

"The Children couldn't hold the Angel back forever in the best situation, and this definitely isn't it, so I completely understand the need to pull out all the stops here. But are you being, um, _productively_ insane?" the Ops Director asked.

Ritsuko smirked. "Oh, I certainly am," she said. "I think I've figured out how the Angel pulled off its little transformation."

"And?" Misato asked.

"Well, first, a bit about the Bleed," Ritsuko said, after looking around to make sure no one was within earshot of them. "Much of it is still a mystery to me, but one thing I know for sure is that it has certain time warping qualities."

"Time warping qualities?" Misato asked, blinking.

Ritsuko nodded. "The scarab once teleported me there to escape, well, you," she said. "I was in it for only a few moments, but when I returned, it was almost midnight. I had lost several hours."

"Okay, so?" Misato asked, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Don't you _see_?" Ritsuko asked, that wild gleam back in her eyes. "The Angel's harnessed those properties of the Bleed to suit its _own ends_! It's using the Bleed's time dilation to cheat causality and to appear in this world seemingly millions—_billions!_—of times. It seems like it—or "they"—are here simultaneously, but they're not. In reality, they're just so close together in _time_ that we can't tell the difference!"

Misato was silent for a full twenty seconds.

"_What?_" she asked finally.

"Er, sorry," Ritsuko said, and then paused while figured out how to put her explanation into layman's terms. "The Angel is using the Bleed's weirder properties to allow itself to appear in multiple places at once."

"It looks like it's all in _one_ place to me," Misato said, gesturing toward the mass of pure darkness. "And that doesn't explain how it went from 2-D to 3-D."

"But it does," Ritsuko said. "For all we called the Angel two-dimensional before, it wasn't really, no more than a piece of paper is two-dimensional because it's thin. The Angel always had width, if only 3 nanometers' worth of it."

"And this is important _how_ exactly?" Misato asked.

"Because, the multiple...incarnations of the Angel are stacking themselves on top of one another," Ritsuko said, using her lab coat to wipe clean a spot on her whiteboard and drawing a series of horizontal lines one atop another, until they formed something like a square. "The Angel hasn't transformed, precisely. It's sort of an illusion, but one with teeth. It's a miracle the thing hasn't started 'growing' downwards into the Geofront yet."

Misato squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her forehead. "Ritsuko, you are giving me the mother of all migraines here," she groaned, "but I don't see how any of this helps us kill that thing."

"Don't you get it?" Ritsuko asked. "The only way the Angel could use the Bleed in such a fashion is if it had submerged its core within it."

"So what does that mean? That we can go in and kill it?" Misato asked eagerly.

"It means that _I_ can go in and kill it," Ritsuko corrected. "You're staying out here, Misato."

"The _hell_ I am!" the Ops Director protested. "You could use my help, Rits. Don't forget who won when we fought."

"Believe me, I haven't," the scientist replied with a grimace, not relishing the memory. "But the Bleed is still largely a mystery to me. I know that I do all right there, but I'm not even sure your ring will protect you in it."

"I can fly into outer-freaking-space with my ring and not even feel chilly," Misato argued. "I'm willing to bet that I'll be okay in this Bleed place."

"And who's going to make sure the Children get to safety if things go south in there?" Ritsuko asked.

_That_ argument brought Misato up short. The Ops Director hesitated.

"I have no _idea_ how great of an area the Angel could potentially cover with its new trick once the pilots are too exhausted to contain it any longer," Ritsuko pressed. "It could consume the whole planet, and at that point, the only one capable of getting anybody to a safe place will be you."

Misato crossed her arms and was silent for a long moment.

"All right," she finally agreed with a gusty sigh. "Go, I'll cover for you again, but don't you dare get yourself killed in there!"

"Thank you," Ritsuko said. "Come with me to find a place where I can switch?" she asked, patting the lump in her coat pocket that was made by the holographic projector.

Misato nodded, and the two women soon found an isolated section of the makeshift base where no eyes, either human or electronic, watched. Ritsuko took out her holo-projector and placed it on the ground. A moment later, holo-Ritsuko appeared.

"Oh, goodie, I get to come out and play again," the blonde's doppelganger noted.

Ritsuko sighed. "Keep an eye on her, Misato."

"Of course."

The black and blue armor then rapidly formed over the blonde's body, covering her form entirely until the Blue Beetle was left standing in Ritsuko Akagi's place.

"Good luck," Misato said.

Ritsuko smiled, but it looked forced. "I think it's safe to say that I'm going to need a good stiff drink after this day is over," she said. "And I also think it's safe to say I'll be entitled to a round from you."

"The drinks will all be on me tonight," Misato promised.

A smirk, more genuine than her earlier attempt at a reassuring smile, appeared on her face. "Careful there, Misato," she said, as wings sprouted from her back and she hovered a feet off the ground, "with the scarab's help, I just might be able to drink _you_ under the table." Then she took off into the sky.

"Fat chance," Misato scoffed, but Blue Beetle was already long gone.

She and holo-Ritsuko stood there, alone and silent, for several long moments.

"So," holo-Ritsuko finally broke the quiet, "you look stressed. Want a cigarette?" she asked, pulling an illusionary pack of smokes out of her equally illusionary pocket.

"Uh, no thanks," Misato said.

"C'mon, they only give you holographic cancer," holo-Ritsuko said.

Misato ignored the hologram, knowing from experience that she wouldn't be nearly as witty once the real Ritsuko was forced to sever contact with her. She gazed off into the distance, watching the Blue Beetle. The insectoid superwoman flew over NERV's hastily thrown together field base, gaining the attention of several technicians and grunt workers alike as she did, causing them to look skyward and point. Then the Blue Beetle headed for the Angel, and, mere moments before she flew straight into it, she dived into the Bleed and vanished with a brief flash of azure light.

* * *

"Well, I can honestly say that I would have been perfectly content not coming back here again," Blue Beetle commented as she flew through the beautiful but eerie whirl of colors that was the Bleed. "Any reading on where the Angel's core is yet?"

_**(No, not yet, but the Bleed's a big place. It'll take some time to scan it all.)**_ The scarab replied.

The bug's mental voice sounded unusually pensive, something Ritsuko more sensed over their link rather than "heard." She frowned.

"Something wrong?" she asked. "I thought you'd be happy. We are looking for a fight right now, after all."

_**(Oh, I am happy about that.)**_ The scarab assured her. _**(I'm just… confused.)**_

"About what?" Blue Beetle asked.

_**(Why did you deceive Misato? I thought she was your friend.)**_

"I didn't lie to Misato," Blue Beetle replied defensively.

_**(No, but you weren't exactly honest with her, either. You held back things. Some might even call it a…)**_ The scarab searched her mind for the appropriate phrase. _**(A lie of omission.)**_

_That_ Blue Beetle was forced to admit was true; she had kept things back from Misato, mostly out of her desire to see the Green Lantern sit this battle out.

The sapphire superwoman didn't expect the upcoming event to be at all easy.

Not long ago, she'd believed that the Twelfth Angel was basically a giant Venus flytrap. It was deadly if you got caught in it, and it certainly responded to stimuli (just the memory of the visions it had assailed her with were enough to make her shiver), but its failure to adapt and try different tactics had made her believe it didn't have much more in the way of brains than the carnivorous plant did.

Now she knew better. No dumb beast, no matter how powerful, could have pulled off the trick that the Angel did with the Bleed. It was intelligent, and she could only guess at what it would do to try and stop her from killing it.

And she didn't tell Misato that part, because she knew her friend would insist on coming if she knew.

She didn't want Misato to be a part of such a dangerous and unpredictable battle. People like Ritsuko—a mad scientist who had been so weak and needy that she'd helped Gendo Ikari commit some truly heinous acts, for nothing more than the illusion of affection—should be the ones who had to brave such great perils to make things right, not naïve, good-hearted souls like Misato.

_**(But you were fine with taking **_**me**_** along for the ride.) **_The scarab pointed out.

"I don't have much of a choice there. Besides, you didn't complain," Blue Beetle pointed out. "Why, do actually want to _not_ fight?"

_**(Hell no!)**_ The scarab replied at once. _**(I was just saying that…)**_ It trailed off.

"What?" Blue Beetle asked.

_**(I've detected the Angel's core.)**_

"Tell me the way," Blue Beetle said.

The scarab obliged her, and she was soon flying through the extra-dimensional 'soup' of the Bleed at top speed. It wasn't long before the core of the Angel came into view, a crimson sphere the size of a truck floating all alone in the bizarre nether-realm. There was none of that profound darkness around it, and it _looked_ perfectly harmless.

So, even though she knew better, Blue Beetle dared to hope that the task before her would be a simple one.

"Say, scarab?" she spoke.

_**(Yes?)**_

"You know all those insane weapons you have, that I never let you use because I don't want to kill people?" she asked.

_**(Yes.)**_ It replied. It would've been breathless with anticipation, if its respiration system resembled that of a human in the slightest.

"I think now might be the time to use one of them," Blue Beetle said, a smile forming on her face.

The scarab's gleeful bloodlust was apparently contagious.

_**(Yes!)**_ The scarab exclaimed, and the armor over Blue Beetle's arm warped and shifted, transforming into the biggest piece of artillery she'd seen the armor manifest yet. _**(Singularity Canon ready!)**_

A targeting reticule appeared on Blue Beetle's HUD, and she easily acquired a lock on the unmoving red sphere. Her weapon released a deliciously malevolent hum as she prepared to fire.

…and then it went dead silent.

"Something wrong, scarab?" Blue Beetle asked.

_**(Uh, well…)**_ It sounded sheepish. _**(It just occurred to me that it might be a good idea to **_**not**_** use a weapon that will destroy the Bleed and everything in it, including us.)**_

Blue Beetle resisted the urge to smack herself in the forehead. Or in the back, as that was where the scarab was.

"Yeah, it might be better if you dialed it down a notch," she agreed.

_**(Right. Switching to Annihilator Beam.)**_ It said, and the weapon on her arm morphed into something that looked a _little_ less devastating.

"All right," Blue Beetle said, leveling her new gun at the core of the Twelfth Angel, "let's—"

And that was when it happened. The Angel's core unleashed a great burst of light, and with it, a huge wave of force. Blue Beetle released a loud cry as she was thrown through the Bleed like a child's toy boat struck by a tidal wave. It took her and the scarab working in concert for a good sixty seconds to stabilize themselves.

"I _knew_ this wouldn't be easy," Blue Beetle grumbled.

_**(It looks like it's about to get a whole lot harder! Look!)**_ The scarab exclaimed.

The chunk of alien hardware in her back actually forced her to turn her head in the direction it wanted, something that Blue Beetle found more than a tad disconcerting. However, she instantly forgot her annoyance when she laid eyes on what the scarab had so wanted her to be aware of.

A woman was approaching her in the cosmic murk, a woman wearing armor that looked almost exactly like her own, except that it was red and black rather than blue and black.

_What the hell? A _Red _Beetle?_ _What is she—?_

The armor covering the right arm of her crimson doppelganger's armor suddenly morphed into a wicked looking weapon that Blue Beetle knew was _not_ the non-lethal suppression rifle.

"Scarab, shields!" she commanded.

The beetle-wing-shaped barriers emerged from her armor just in time to block the path of the beam of crimson death her enemy fired at her, but the force of the blast sent her careening through space once more. She managed to stabilize her flight pattern just in time to look at her counterpart and see the "Red Beetle" preparing for another shot.

"Scarab!"

_**(On it!)**_ It replied, and a pair of jets appeared on the bottom of the Blue Beetle's boots. One quick pulse was more than enough to remove her from the path of deadly energy, giving her enough time to regroup.

"Look, I don't know who are, but we don't have to fight! We're—"

The Blue Beetle was rudely cut off as her scarlet mirror image fired at her again, forcing her to dodge.

"We don't have to fight!" she yelled.

_**(Uh, Ritsuko, considering she's trying to kill us, I'd say we **_**do**_** have to fight.)**_ The scarab pointed out.

The Blue Beetle bit back the urge to snap at the scarab. "I won't kill her! Not when I don't even know who she is or why she's doing this," she said instead. "Give me the suppression rifle!"

_**(That thing is meant for crowd control. It won't do anything to an armored target like her!)**_ The scarab said.

"Damn," Blue Beetle swore, then addressed her foe again. "Look, I don't know why you're trying to kill us, but you have to _stop_!"

The Red Beetle answered with a wordless growl and another bolt of crimson death. The beam grazed the Blue Beetle's shoulder, tearing off the armor there and leaving the skin beneath badly burned. The sapphire superwoman let out a cry of pain as the scarab quickly got to the task of patching the armor and repairing the wound.

_**(Ritsuko, we don't have a choice!)**_ The scarab hissed. _**(We need to take her down hard!)**_

"No!" she exclaimed, even as the Red Beetle went in for another pass. "I've already committed enough atrocities. I won't murder this woman! For all we know, she's some innocent civilian the Bleed has taken control over!"

_**(Then how do you plan to survive this?)**_ The scarab demanded as she blocked another blast with her shields, this time having the sense to use her suit's thrusters to keep herself from being sent spinning wildly through space.

"I'm still working on that," the Blue Beetle admitted through clenched teeth. "If only we could figure out who she is and why she's doing this…" Her eyes widened. "Scarab, do you think you can scan her?"

_**(I can try.)**_ It said gamely, and the Blue Beetle felt it going to work, its alien mind whirling at a pace her own human brain could never even hope to match. Then it stopped abruptly. _**(Whoa…)**_

The Red Beetle finally gave up on the guns, and the armor over her arms morphed into a pair of long, wicked looking blades. The Blue Beetle brought her shields up to block the deadly swings, but even so, she was forced to give ground to keep herself from being sliced in two.

"What?" she demanded of the scarab.

_**(She's us.)**_ The scarab said.

"What?"

_**(She's us!)**_ The scarab repeated.

"What in the world are you talking about?" Blue Beetle asked. "I guess she looks a little like us, but—"

_**(No, she's **_**us!**_**)**_ The scarab insisted. _**(DNA scans indicate that both she and her scarab and are a 100 percent match for you and I! The only thing different is their vibrational wavelength!)**_

"'Vibrational wavelength'?" Blue Beetle scowled. "In plain Japanese, please!"

_**(…you know, you really have no right to say that to anyone after the orgy of techno-babble you subjected Misato to.)**_

"Ugh, tease me later, explain _now_!" the Blue Beetle exclaimed, as she narrowly avoided being decapitated by her foe.

_**(She and her scarab are our counterparts from a parallel dimension!)**_ The scarab said.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," the Blue Beetle said.

_**(Why do you say that? I told you from the start that the Bleed was the space between dimensions. It must've been easy for the Angel to drag her here from wherever her home is.)**_

"But _why_ is she defending it?" Blue Beetle asked.

_**(I don't know.)**_ The scarab said. _**(But I might know one way of finding out…)**_

"Then let's do it," the Blue Beetle said.

_**(Uh, you should know that it'll hurt like hell.)**_

"When doesn't it?" the Blue Beetle asked, actually cracking a sardonic smile.

_**(And it might just be a little bit lethal to us.)**_

"Just tell me what to do," the Blue Beetle growled.

It did. The azure superwoman grimaced. This _would_ hurt, but she was committed now. Reluctantly, she ordered the armor to reabsorb her shields, transforming the parts over her arm into a pair of wicked-looking blades just like the ones her foe wielded.

Back in college, Ritsuko had briefly been a member of the kendo club during her freshman year. It wasn't that she'd had any actual interest in getting hit with sticks, of course, no matter how much armor she had on, but she'd been foolishly infatuated with the team captain. He had barely given her the time of day and had later started dating another student whose rack was almost (but not _quite_, Ritsuko had noted cattily) on par with Misato's formidable bust.

After that, she would have left the club right away, but that would have made it obvious why she'd joined to begin with. Not wanting to subject herself to more humiliation than she was already feeling, Ritsuko had stayed with the club for the rest of the semester, telling herself it was good exercise as she endured the blows. She had actually been a bit better than awful at the so-called 'sport' by the time she felt she could make her exit from the club with dignity.

And apparently, some old muscle memory from those days remained, because as the dark red blade of her crimson duplicate arced toward her, she nearly parried the blow without giving it a thought.

Or perhaps it was just the old human survival instinct.

Either way, she managed to resist the almost overwhelming urge, instead focusing purely on offense.

Both armored women hit their targets. The Red Beetle's blade pierced the armor by the Blue Beetle's shoulder and sank deeply into her flesh, evicting a loud cry of pain from the sapphire superwoman. The Blue Beetle's strike was less grievous, her blade penetrating the flesh of her counterpart's left biceps far less deeply. Even so, the Red Beetle hissed in pain.

Both combatants then pulled back, almost in unison, red blood dripping from the tips of their weapons.

_I guess that went about as well as I could have hoped,_ the Blue Beetle thought, trying to keep tears of agony from clouding her vision.

"All right, scarab, both of our armors have been breached!" she said through clenched teeth. "Do it!"

_**(Hacking into enemy scarab's mental interface.)**_ It announced.

"I hope that at least _this_ part doesn't…"

The Blue Beetle never got any further. Her vision blurred terribly, the world wavering sickeningly before her eyes. Then it seemed to disappear entirely, leaving nothing but blackness behind.

For a single, terrifying moment, the Blue Beetle feared that she had died.

Then she saw something in the darkness, a single point of light. A single point of red light.

This was soon joined by dozens more, then hundreds more, then millions more, until there was a whole sky full of red stars before her. Blue Beetle was forcibly reminded of the time she had plunged into the computer mind of the MAGI.

And just like that time, she found herself soaring toward an impossible island in the blackness, though this one was circular rather than the triangular one that had represented the MAGI.

_Scarab, are you still with me?_ She thought as she landed lightly on the ground.

_**(I'm here.)**_ It answered, its voice unusually hushed.

"Are you having any trouble maintaining our connection here?" she asked.

_**(No. The other scarab isn't resisting this nearly as hard as it should be.)**_ It answered. _**(Ritsuko, something is weird here.)**_

"Yeah, I figured that out already," Blue Beetle replied, looking around at her surroundings.

The whole place was completely white, so much so that it hurt her eyes a bit to look at it. There were a few scattered buildings, all of them unmarked and boasting perfectly straight lines, the very picture of order. However, most of the place was utterly empty. Empty and completely sterile.

The Blue Beetle had no idea what the inside of _her_ mind would look like, but somehow she didn't think it would resemble this place at all. Hell, she'd be less surprised if her mindscape looked like some dark dungeon rather than this barren locale.

"Is my counterpart a completely different person?" she wondered aloud.

_**(It's possible, but there's definitely something wrong here.)**_ The scarab said, still sounding wary and tentative.

"Well, we're not going to get anywhere just standing here," the Blue Beetle said, and began to walk forward.

She soon approached one of the buildings in this bizarre place. It was just as featureless as all the others around her, but it was by far the largest and seemed to be in the exact center of the white island. She climbed the short flight of steps that led to the front door and entered.

"Oh, as if this wasn't bizarre enough already," the Blue Beetle breathed as she stepped inside.

The interior of the building was just one great chamber, and it mercifully wasn't the same blinding white as everything outside. However, that was about the only positive thing that could be said about it. The walls were all covered in some sort of pale red crystals, their multifaceted walls looking unnaturally smooth.

And, on the far side of the huge room, was the Blue Beetle's counterpart. The other Ritsuko was completely nude and partially embedded in the crystal, her arms and legs covered up to her elbows and knees. Her head was slumped forward, and even though her eyes were open, the green orbs stared into space sightlessly. Most shockingly of all, her head had been shaved completely bald, leaving a huge red scar exposed.

"My god," the Blue Beetle gasped, more than a little disturbed at the sight of someone who looked exactly like her in such a sorry state, "what the hell happened to her?"

Almost in answer, a voice that sounded very familiar suddenly spoke, seeming to come from every direction at once and startling the Blue Beetle.

"A flat tire. Wonderful."

The sapphire superwoman looked around wildly, until she saw the scene that was playing out on every facet of the crystals that surrounded her. It showed a blonde woman in a lab coat who looked like she'd been enduring too much stress, smoking too many cigarettes, and not eating too well of late.

For a very brief moment, the Blue Beetle was unable to think about anything besides how tired, haggard, and middle-aged "she" looked.

_God, did I really look _that_ awful before the scarab decided to make me look exactly the way I always wanted to?_ She wondered, appalled.

Then more important matters quickly entered her mind. She watched silently as the image of herself went to the trunk of the car, clearly getting ready to replace the useless tire with the spare.

"Unless I don't have a jack!"

_This is right after the Tenth Angel was defeated,_ Ritsuko thought, her eyes glued to the image of herself as she tried and failed to call for help. _Right before…_

_**(You found me.)**_ The scarab finished softly, as the strange recording showed Ritsuko taking out a cigarette, only to discover that her lighter was dead and to toss the unlit cancer stick away in disgust.

The scientist continued to watch, her gaze never leaving the crystals as the familiar scene played out. The other Ritsuko popped the hood of her car, and then settled down to wait. However, it wasn't long before she seemed to notice something in the grass by the side of the road.

It was a scarab that appeared to be made out of stone.

_Red_ stone.

_Just like I suspected, that isn't me up there, it's her,_ Blue Beetle thought, glancing over at her pitiful looking counterpart.

She continued to watch as the other Ritsuko's life played out before her, taking in months' worth of events. Of course, logically that should have taken months itself, but in this realm of the mind it felt like, and was, mere moments. In some dim corner of her own mind, the scientist surmised that none of this was really here, exactly; the sounds and images before her were just how her brain was choosing the process all of the data from the weird connection she'd established with her other self, much like when she'd linked her brain with the MAGI.

The rest of her mind was focused on the familiar story unfolding before her eyes. She watched that other Ritsuko's early struggles with the scarab, before she managed to repair it, followed by her first misadventures as a superwoman. She watched the other Ritsuko roll out of bed one morning and realize that she suddenly had the perfect body and the genuinely blond hair she'd always desired. She watched the other Ritsuko decide to try and use the scarab's powers to atone for all the evils she had been an accessory to. She watched the other Ritsuko encounter the Green Lantern, eventually doing battle with her and losing.

Her counterpart's superwoman name had been the Scarlet Scarab, but other than that and the different color of her armor, she seemed to have lived the exact same life as Ritsuko Akagi, a.k.a. the Blue Beetle.

Or at least, she did up to a point.

The scene displayed in the crystals shifted to one the Blue Beetle didn't recognize. Her counterpart and Gendo stood in one of the many dark rooms of Terminal Dogma. The other Ritsuko looked impatient.

"You wanted to speak with me in private, Commander?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Hmm, yes," Gendo replied, looking like he was barely paying her any attention. He wasn't even looking directly at her, but was instead staring off into space.

"Well?" the other Ritsuko asked.

"Tell me, Dr. Akagi, did you really believe you'd get away with it?" Gendo asked in an off-handed tone.

"Get away with what, sir?" the other Ritsuko asked, her voice trembling.

"Don't play dumb with me," Gendo said sharply. "I know that you're the Scarlet Scarab."

The other Ritsuko's face hardened, and the armor appeared over her arm, soon transforming into a weapon that was _not_ the non-lethal suppression rifle. She leveled it at the Commander. "I didn't want to take the direct approach like this."

Gendo was completely unfazed by having a gun in his face, and it soon became apparent why. He pressed the button on a small remote control he'd held concealed in his gloved hand, one which neither Ritsuko had noticed until now.

Lightning leaped from emitters hidden in the walls, one of them right in the place where Gendo had been staring earlier. Blue Beetle was startled, surprised by the sudden, violent assault, and she only belatedly realized it wasn't really _lightning_ that was blasting her counterpart. More like some kind of supped-up taser.

Although, it almost might as well have been lightning; it was certainly effective enough. The other Ritsuko collapsed to the floor, and the crystals all went dark. For a moment, Blue Beetle believed that the show was over, but then a thin line of light broke through the gloom.

The door to the holding cell where the other Ritsuko was apparently being kept opened, allowing Gendo access. A pair of Section Two thugs were right behind him, ready to intervene should she choose to try and attack him.

"I'm guessing you've deduced from the pain in your back and the absence of the organism's voice in your mind that I've had your friend removed from your body," Gendo began.

The other Ritsuko just glared hatefully up at him.

Gendo didn't seem to mind. "As you might expect, I was very intrigued by this strange object which gave you such formidable abilities," he continued. "However, my experiments with it have yet to bear fruit."

The other Ritsuko smirked grimly. "Of course not. It's an intelligent creature, you bastard. It won't just empower anybody you want it to."

Gendo was still unperturbed. "So it would seem," he agreed. "Apparently, it only wants you."

"Give it to me, and I'll use its power to help you further your scenario," the other Ritsuko promised with an obvious lack of sincerity, a bitter, sardonic smirk on her face.

"You're joking, of course," Gendo observed needlessly, "but I am not."

He signaled the two Section Two agents, who stepped forward. One of them pulled out a large, wicked looking syringe that was filled with a clear fluid.

"What the hell?" the other Ritsuko exclaimed. "Get away from me!"

She tried to fight off the pair of men in the black suits, but she was weak from the surgery which had removed the scarab from her back. The Section Two agents subdued her easily, and one of them stabbed her with the needle, quickly depressing the plunger.

The crystals went dark again. Blue Beetle found herself waiting with baited breath for the images to come back, but when they did, they were fuzzy, like the picture on a very old and crappy television.

"…the hell?" Blue Beetle wondered aloud.

She didn't particularly want to know what happened next; there was no doubt in her mind that whatever parts of the story she was missing were, they weren't pleasant. Indeed, she felt more than a little ill from what she had learned already.

Yet the Blue Beetle found that, now that she knew as much as did, she _had_ to know the rest. Her curiosity overriding her sense of caution, she walked forward and placed a hand on one of the crystalline walls. She let out a loud gasp, feeling as though she had just grabbed a live power line. And then—

* * *

—she found herself laying a bed, staring sightlessly up at the drab, featureless ceiling.

It was at the point that the Blue Beetle should probably have started to panic, especially considering that she seemed unable to move her body, but she didn't. She somehow just knew, the way you knew things in dreams, that she was currently riding along in one of her other self's memories and wasn't going through this herself.

She also now understood why the picture quality had so abruptly deteriorated on the crystals; it was because the quality of the memories themselves had likewise gone south.

She knew, in the same way she knew that she had nothing to be scared about concerning this situation, that the other Ritsuko didn't really understand what was happening around her. Her counterpart could smell the antiseptics, but she couldn't connect that scent with hospitals. She could see that everything was bathed within a soft blue light, but she didn't realize that meant she was almost certainly in the NERV Medical Ward, which always looked that way.

The other Ritsuko was taking in all the stimuli just fine, but she couldn't comprehend the meanings of any of them.

However, the Blue Beetle could, and she was beyond horrified. She could feel a large, cotton bandage wrapped tightly around her counterpart's head. That, combined with the awful scar she knew the other Ritsuko would develop, and the total lack of real thoughts within her head…

_Dear God in Heaven, he __**lobotomized**_ _her,_ Blue Beetle thought.

Before she could get over her shock and horror, the door to the room opened, and the Blue Beetle could hear several people walking into the room. Arms reached out toward her counterpart's limp body and got her into a sitting position, allowing her to lay eyes upon her visitors.

The group consisted of the Commander and a pair of orderlies in white. Gendo Ikari held the red scarab in his hands, and it, too, had been damaged. A long, ugly mark like a scar ran along the length of its body.

The Commander reached behind her, and placed the scarab on the small of her back. This was easy for him to do because she was in one of those hospital gowns that was open at the back, and the Blue Beetle burned with rage and embarrassment on behalf of her other self, who couldn't feel those emotions.

Damaged or not, the scarab crawled beneath her counterpart's skin…

And the Blue Beetle immediately sensed that something resembling thought returned to her other self's head. Connections between bits of data were made, deductions were reached…but it was still wrong. No emotion accompanied any of this; the other Ritsuko's mind was as cold and as dispassionate as that of any computer.

The only thing she felt was a total, unquestioning loyalty toward Gendo Ikari.

* * *

The scene shifted abruptly, making the Blue Beetle feel even sicker than she already did. She would have liked very much to get off this ride now, but she seemed stuck. Unable to do much as sigh in resignation at the moment, she settled back to watch the events unfolding before her.

Then fervently wished she could close her eyes.

The Scarlet Scarab was flying through the air above Tokyo-3, in pursuit of another likewise airborne woman. Green light trailed after her quarry like the tail of a comet.

_Oh no,_ the Blue Beetle thought.

"Ritsuko!" Green Lantern yelled. "_Please,_ don't do this!"

The Scarlet Scarab responded with a blast of her yellow laser. The emerald superwoman was barely able to dodge the beam and reluctantly countered with one of her own. However, it was slow and not even an target, an obvious warning shot.

"Don't make me hurt you, Ritsuko!" Green Lantern begged. "Please, I don't know what's happened to you, but I'm sure we can fix it if we work together!"

_Oh god, Misato, stop trying to bring me back to the light side of the Force!_ Blue Beetle pleaded silently, the body of her counterpart now seeming very much like a prison indeed. _You handed my ass to me once. Do it again!_

But now the Green Lantern knew who lurked beneath the insectoid armor, and she obviously wasn't willing to do battle with nearly the same level of ferocity that she had displayed the first time they had clashed.

The Scarlet Scarab, however, had no such restraints. She again fired her yellow laser, a weapon that Ritsuko knew would sail right through the Green Lantern's protective field as though it wasn't even there.

This time, the Green Lantern wasn't quite fast enough on the dodge, and the beam grazed her right arm, causing her to hiss in pain. Her piercingly jade eyes hardened.

"All right, that's it! Enough Miss Nice Lantern!" the emerald superwoman proclaimed.

_Yes! That's it, show no mercy, Misato! _Blue Beetle thought, silently cheering her friend on.

Even though she knew on some level how this battle would turn out. How it _had_ to turn out.

Green light erupted from the Lantern's ring, soon taking on the shape of a giant hand. The ring construct reached out and snatched the Scarlet Scarab right out of the sky, the jade fingers wrapping themselves around her tightly and pinning her arms to her sides. The Green Lantern commanded the construct to bring the Scarlet Scarab closer, until the two of them were face to face.

"Damn it, Ritsuko, I don't know what the hell is wrong you, but you and I are going have a nice, long talk until—"

She never got any further. A bubble of golden light bloomed around the Scarlet Scarab, and Blue Beetle realized it was the very same trick she'd used when she'd fought the Green Lantern. The emerald hand holding her was powerless to keep its grip on the Scarlet Scarab now that she was surrounded by yellow light, and she took full advantage of her new freedom.

Before Green Lantern could react, the Scarlet Scarab raised her arm and fired her laser.

_No!_ Blue Beetle thought, but she was powerless to do anything.

The beam of yellow light slammed into the Green Lantern's abdomen, tearing through the emerald gladiator's flesh and emerging from her back without so much as slowing down. Her face paled until she looked almost gray, and her mouth hung open in a long, soundless gasp.

For a brief, horrible moment, the two women just hung in the air, completely silent.

Then the ring flew off the Green Lantern's finger.

_"Ring status report,"_ it spoke in a flat, toneless voice. _"Green Lantern 2814 deceased. Space sector scan for replacement sentient initiated."_

And with that, the ring of power soared away, in search of a new owner.

Without it, the Green Lantern's costume vanished and was replaced with Misato's NERV uniform. The Blue Beetle could only watch helplessly as her best friend's body went tumbling down toward the streets far below.

* * *

Reality once more shifted, even as the Blue Beetle tried with all her might to escape this hell. There was apparently one more thing she needed to see.

Mercifully, this scene was brief.

The Scarlet Scarab stood in a dark room that reminded Ritsuko of the chamber where the Commander communicated with SEELE. The secretive cabal was not present, but Gendo was.

Only it wasn't Gendo, the Blue Beetle realized at once. His posture, his attitude, they were both off in subtle ways she couldn't put into words but recognized immediately. And more importantly, he wasn't wearing his usual red shirt beneath his uniform jacket. Instead, the one he had on was adorned with black and white stripes, not unlike the sphere that had hovered about the Eleventh Angel's original form.

_Not Gendo,_ she thought. _Not Gendo at all._

"Akagi," the facsimile of the Commander said, a sinister smile appearing on his face. "I need you to destroy the blue one."

* * *

There was another flash, and at last, the Blue Beetle returned to herself, staggering back from the crystalline walls. She pulled her hands away from them, now as wary of them as if they were radioactive.

"Oh my God," she gasped. "Oh my _God_."

_**(That was horrible.)**_ The scarab said, sounding about as emotionally drained by the experience as she felt.

The Blue Beetle looked up at her pathetic counterpart, still trapped within the red crystal. She looked almost like a hunter's trophy that had been mounted on the wall, or the victim of a crucifixion.

"We have to help her," the Blue Beetle said softly. "Can you repair her brain?"

_**(Maybe.)**_ The scarab answered doubtfully. _**(I can try, I guess.)**_

This response didn't exactly fill her with enthusiasm, but the Blue Beetle was willing to take any chance of restoring this wretched shadow of herself. She walked up to her, and, being careful to avoid touching the crystal again, she placed her hands on either side of the other Ritsuko's scarred head.

"Do your best," she told the scarab softly.

Over their mental link, she could feel the scarab struggling mightily. It couldn't directly repair her counterpart's brain, but had to try and make its own damaged counterpart do the job. This meant that the task was a hell of a lot harder than it would've otherwise been.

But the scarab felt as much sympathy for the Scarlet Scarab and her chunk of alien hardware as the Blue Beetle did, and it gave everything it had to the attempt.

The Blue Beetle's vision suddenly began to blur again, and she realized that she was leaving the mindscape she had spent what felt like an eternity in. She wasn't sure if that was because her scarab had done the job, or if their time there was just up. However, the Blue Beetle kept silent, not wanting to distract her scarab while it went about its important task.

And in her secret heart of hearts, she was just relieved to be leaving this awful place.

* * *

A thousand colors, many of which seemed like they shouldn't be capable of existing, assaulted the Blue Beetle's eyes, and her stomach roiled. She was barely able to suppress the urge to vomit.

Then her head began to stop spinning, and the Blue Beetle realized that she was back in the Bleed. There was a dull ache by her shoulder where the Scarlet Scarab had stabbed her, but nothing like the pain that had been present not long ago. Her scarab had apparently healed the wound while she'd been inside the Scarlet Scarab's mind.

Speaking of the Scarlet Scarab, her other-dimensional counterpart appeared to be waking up. She grunted softly and rubbed her head.

"Oh my God," Scarlet Scarab groaned, her voice a thick croak from its long period of disuse. "Oh my God. M-Misato."

Before the Blue Beetle could say anything to try and comfort her other self, there was a low rumbling sound from nearby. The sapphire superwoman looked at the Angel's core just in time to see it flash as it released another pulse.

The two armored women screamed as they were again tossed through the Bleed like a paper airplane caught in a tornado. It was the Blue Beetle who was able to stabilize herself first, and she reached out and grabbed hold of the Scarlet Scarab, bringing her to a stop as well.

"We have to kill that damn thing," she said.

The Scarlet Scarab just stared at her for a second before speaking. "Y-Yes," she stuttered. "Kill." And with that she flew off toward the Angel.

_Oh,_ the Blue Beetle thought, feeling dread rise up inside her. _She's not completely fixed, is she?_

_**(It was impossible to entirely restore her mind, or the mind of her scarab.)**_ The scarab answered mournfully.

The Blue Beetle sighed, lowering her head. She supposed that would have been too much to hope for.

_**(Are you going to let her kill the Angel all by herself?)**_ The scarab asked, shaking her out of her reverie.

"Hell, no," the Blue Beetle replied, taking off after her red counterpart, who was already halfway to the Angel's core.

Catching up to the Scarlet Scarab, the Blue Beetle wasted no time in summoning the annihilator beam weapon, firing a blast of azure death at the ruby sphere and impacting it dead on.

Unfortunately, the core failed to shatter the way it by all rights _should_ have after enduring the brunt of so much destructive energy. Instead, it glowed briefly, blinking for a moment.

And then it spat the blast back out at the Blue Beetle, who was barely able to dodge her own attack redirected at her.

"Damn it," the sapphire superwoman hissed. "Can't _any_ part of this be easy?"

The Scarlet Scarab, however, seemed undeterred by the discovery that energy weapons didn't work against the Angel's core. She flew forward, the armor over her arms transforming into a pair of thick, straight blades, and all but crashed into the sphere, then began stabbing away at it.

At first it seemed like an utterly ineffective assault, but then the Blue Beetle saw little chips of the mysterious material that composed Angels' cores flying about with each strike that her counterpart landed.

_Well, I guess that melee weapons always have been more effective than firearms against the Angels,_ she thought.

Transforming her own gauntlets into blades, she landed on the core as well, and—after saying a brief prayer to a deity she didn't really believe in that the Angel didn't unleash another pulse—she added her efforts to those of her crimson counterpart.

For what felt like forever, the two women hacked away at the core. The Blue Beetle struck again and again with all her strength, but the Scarlet Scarab's blows were more ferocious still. It was like she was unleashing all her hate and sorrow at the enemy before her, even though it had very little to do with her still pitiable state.

So perhaps it was unsurprising that the red bug was the one to strike pay-dirt first, the blade on her right arm finally breaking through the red material and sinking into it several inches.

The Blue Beetle's surge of weary triumph was utterly smothered by terror as she saw blinding white light stream out of the crack. Having seen the final death throes of the Third and Seventh Angels, she knew only too well what it meant when the core of an Angel glowed like that right before its destruction.

"It's going to explode!" the Blue Beetle exclaimed.

The Scarlet Scarab's reaction caught her completely by surprise. The armor over her left arm shifted from the form of a blade to that of an energy weapon, and she fired it at the Blue Beetle from point-blank rage.

The sapphire superwoman let out a loud, undignified squawk of surprise and fear, but the energy blast didn't actually hurt her; her armor proved more than sufficient to protect her. However, the force of the attack did manage to send her flying off the Angel's core.

She managed to come to a stop just in time to observe the Scarlet Scarab change the gun back into a blade and resume her assault on the ruby sphere. The crack began to widen, the shaft of light streaming out of it growing larger and more intense.

"Don't do it!" the Blue Beetle yelled. "You'll die!"

The Scarlet Scarab looked up at her, though she never paused her attacks. "I… I _know_," she said. "Something's… something's bad with my mind. I… I can't live. Not like this. You go. I'll…I'll kill it."

Blue Beetle opened her mouth to argue, and then stopped herself. It made sense, she realized. Real, logical sense. As a scientist, she had always prided herself on her intelligence, and the idea of being mentally handicapped horrified her; she would never want to live in such a state. And there was no way the Scarlet Scarab could hope to outmaneuver Gendo and save her world when she could only form simple sentences with the greatest of effort. Her best friend was dead by her hand. The Scarlet Scarab had nothing to live for.

All the same, the Blue Beetle hated it. She hated to see a woman who was basically herself surrender after being so badly defeated. She hesitated.

And then the Scarlet Scarab landed a particularly hard blow. Cracks formed all over the core, radiating out from the original breach, and shafts of light pored out of the sphere in all directions.

"Wait!" Blue Beetle exclaimed. "I have to know—"

The core exploded, white light shooting out in all directions. Chunks of red material went flying in directions like shrapnel. The blast would reach the Blue Beetle in less than a second.

So it was a good thing the scarab was quick.

_**(We're out of here!)**_ It exclaimed, even as it pulled her out of the Bleed.

* * *

The next thing the Blue Beetle knew, she was back in the world she had always known, her arm still outstretched toward her counterpart, who was no longer in sight. The pitch dark of the Angel was beneath her, still squashed into the shape of a triangle by the three Evangelions' AT Fields.

_What the hell? Why isn't it dead?_ She wondered. _That _can't_ have been for nothing!_

Before the scarab could reply, the air itself began to shake, and the swirling mass of darkness beneath her started to writhe. Crackling bolts of red energy were visible within the Angel's void-like body, like lightning visible within a distant storm cloud. Impossibly, cracks formed within the black maw, blood spurting out from them.

And then the Angel just _exploded_, blood spraying in every direction and painting the whole city a ghastly red. Even the Blue Beetle, high up as she was, had to quickly ascend much further to avoid getting spattered with the stuff.

The Angel was dead at last. As the Blue Beetle watched, the three Evangelions slumped, looking about as weary as their pilots doubtlessly felt after holding the line against the darkness for so long.

Then someone on the ground managed to spot her in the fading light of the day and pointed up at her. Others soon followed suit, and soon the assembled NERV personnel let out a loud cheer for the Blue Beetle.

This was exactly the kind of response she had wanted, the kind that she needed to advance her plan. However, at the moment, she couldn't stand it. She forced herself to wave at everyone and then took off, soon leaving the improvised base behind. With her out of the Bleed, holo-Ritsuko could stand in for her as long as she needed her to.

She finally came to a stop atop a large faux building that was really an enormous weapons turret. Knowing that it would be hours until NERV got around to transforming the city back to its peacetime configuration, she landed on the roof and sat down, her legs dangling over the side.

"…what you did wrong," she whispered.

_**(What?)**_ The scarab asked.

"I wasn't able to figure out what that other me did wrong," the Blue Beetle said. "Her personal history seemed identical to mine up until the moment Gendo led her into his little trap. For all I know, I've already made the same mistake she did, and Gendo's just taking his time in getting ready to confront me." She tried to lick her lips, which felt as dry as dust, but she was still wearing the armor. "I could still very well end up just like her. My mind shattered, and made into a weapon against everything I've been trying to save."

She and the scarab were both silent for a long moment.

_**(Ritsuko, I'm sorry.)**_ It spoke up eventually.

"For what?" Blue Beetle asked, frowning slightly.

_**(If I hadn't wasted time with the wrong weapon, we might have killed the Angel before the Scarlet Scarab showed up.)**_ It explained.

"Don't be sorry about that," Blue Beetle replied softly. "The Angel would've just redirected the attack back at us. Besides, at least this way, she's free of Gendo's control, and her death accomplished something."

They felt silent again. Once more, it was the scarab who spoke first.

_**(So what are you going to do?)**_ It asked.

The Blue Beetle sighed. She supposed she only had two real options. One was to keep going on as she had been. The other was to run the hell away from Tokyo-3.

_One or zero,_ she thought, and then smirked. _God, I'm such a nerd._

The logical choice was clear. If she left, then she all but handed Gendo victory. After all, Misato might have the power to stop him, but she lacked the necessary knowledge. If she stayed, Gendo still might win, but there was a chance that she could emerge victorious, too.

So, the logical choice was obvious. Irrefutable even.

Just like it had been clear that the logical choice was to allow the Scarlet Scarab to sacrifice herself in order to end the life of the Twelfth Angel once and for all.

And just like that instance, while the Blue Beetle could see that her remaining option was continuing to fight the good fight—even now that she'd seen how intensely horrible defeat would be—the prospect of actually doing it didn't exactly fill her with happy feelings.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** This was quite a bit darker than I usually go, but when I had this idea, I felt like I had to go with it. It's not much like what happened in canon, at least.

Before anybody says anything about the high level of pseudo-science in this chapter, I'd like to point out that most of it came straight from the Blue Beetle comic book. Jaime Reyes used the Bleed to appear in three places at once during "Endgame" and he dove into the mind of another person with a scarab in "Sinestro's Reach."

I have to say, I've kind of surprised myself with how much I'm getting into this fic. When I started it, I was writing it for the sake of completeness, and to see if I could write a good story featuring a character whose canon self I don't like. Now I'm finding myself with all these really cool ideas for this story, and I'm really enjoying writing it.

**Michael Smith,** more than a few people thought my choice of the Blue Beetle was an odd one, and to be honest, if I were to start the SOE2 series over for some reason, I would give serious thought to making Ritsuko into the Atom, and damn the fact that she couldn't really fight the Angels. That said, the decision to make Rits into BB didn't have anything to do with Jaime Reyes; it had to do with the scarab. They've both been used as pawns in someone else's nefarious schemes. Plus, I really felt that Ritsuko needed a voice in her head (like Rei has Lilith in her SOE1 fic), to help her along.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well. Now for some fun.

* * *

Omakes

The Many Benefits of Kicking the Habit

"You've completely lost it, Ritsuko," Misato said, "you know that, don't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," the blonde replied, not taking her attention off her whiteboard, which she was scribbling upon without pause.

"Well, for one thing, all your colleagues have abandoned you. Even Maya gave up on trying to follow what you're doing," the Ops Director said, hooking a thumb toward the area where the rest of Tech Division One had regrouped to work on the problem without Ritsuko, after accepting that the Project-E chairperson had gone temporarily insane.

"Hmph. Let them. I don't care," she said, her voice gradually increasing in volume. "They think I've gone mad, don't they?"

"Uh…"

"They did! They thought I went _mad! __**MAD**_I say! But I'll show them! I'll show them _all_! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Misato waited until her friend finally stopped. "Was there any reason for that?" she asked. "At all?"  
"Not really," Ritsuko admitted, suddenly quite calm. "It's just that before the scarab repaired all the damage smoking so much had done to my lungs, I sort of sputter out and start coughing if I tried to do the mad scientist laugh, but now I can go for at a solid minute at a stretch if I want to. And I guess I just take every opportunity I can to do just that."

Misato looked at Ritsuko strangely. "You're weird, you know that?"

"Yes, but I'm also damn sexy, so people will be willing to overlook that," Ritsuko replied as she went back to her calculations.

"…good point," Misato conceded.

* * *

Inter-dimensional Unmentionables Thief

(A/N: You need to read the omakes after chapter 14 of orionpax09's _Lilith's Herald_ for this to entirely make sense.)

It was one of the strangest scenes ever witnessed in Tokyo-3, and for the city that hosted NERV, that was really saying something. A tiny old man was running down the street, a massive sack slung over his back. In pursuit of this pint sized culprit was a not-so-jolly green giantess, a girl with feathery, white wings, a young lady clad in red, white, and blue, a demoness riding a _huge_ motorcycle, and several others.

"Woo," Happosai panted, "this was fun at first, but now it's just getting to be too much! Man, that orionpax guy really doesn't let up, does he?"

"Tell me about it," Ghost Rider agreed, even as she gunned the motor on her bike. "I might even feel sorry for you…_if you hadn't stolen all my underwear, you damn pervert!_"

"Oh boy, time for a quick escape!" Happosai exclaimed. "Let's see if I remember this old ki trick right…"

With a flash of light, the old pervert vanished.

* * *

"Well, I can honestly say that I would have been perfectly content not coming back here again," Blue Beetle commented as she flew through the beautiful but eerie whirl of colors that was the Bleed. "Any reading on where the—ooph!"

She was cut off as she collided with something else in the Bleed. Blue Beetle blinked stupidly at the little old man carrying the giant sack.

_This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder,_ she decided.

"Oh, this isn't right," Happosai mused. "Damn, knew I shouldn't have taken that right at Albuquerque…"

"Um, excuse me, sir…?" Blue Beetle said.

The old man's eyes lit up at the sight of her. "Well, hello there, tall, blue, and buxom!" he crowed. "I'll bet you're a real looker underneath that armor!"

"Um, thanks, I guess, but how…"

She never got any further. The old man was suddenly a wild blur of motion all around her. When at last he came to a stop, he was holding a pair of white cotton panties in his fist, a pair that Blue Beetle was very familiar with.

"What?" she squawked, incredulous and indignant at once. "This armor is all one piece, so how did you _do_ that?"

"Trade secret, cutie!" Happosai said, then started to breast stroke through the Bleed, his huge sack tied to his back. He made surprisingly good time.

"Say, scarab?" Blue Beetle spoke as she watched him escaping.

_**(Yes?)**_

"You know all those insane weapons you have, that I never let you use because I don't want to kill people?" she asked.

_**(Yes.)**_ It replied. It would've been breathless with anticipation, if its respiration system resembled that of a human in the slightest.

"I think now might be the time to use one of them," Blue Beetle said, a smile forming on her face.


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: **Special Forces

Located about fifty kilometers outside of Tokyo-2, the JSSDF Central Command Base was one of the most secure facilities in Japan. Motion detectors, heat sensors, laser trip wires, and other advanced systems ensured that not even a house fly could hope to infiltrate the compound without being caught.

Of course, the Blue Beetle wasn't a house fly.

_**(Dun dun, da na! Dun dun, dun na!)**_ The scarab cheerfully "sang" as Blue Beetle flew over the high fence around the base.

"The _Mission: Impossible_ theme? Really?" the sapphire superwoman groaned.

_**(Personally, I think it's quite appropriate, given the situation.)**_ The scarab commented cheekily.

"Can you be serious for just a little while? Say, an hour?" Blue Beetle asked testily. "This is very important."

_**(Fine, fine whatever.)**_ The scarab grumbled, and Blue Beetle had the feeling it would have rolled its eyes if it could.

The superwoman sighed. _Honestly, you would think that something that's supposed to be an alien doomsday device would be a little less childish,_ she thought, then frowned. _Where __**did**__ the scarab pick up its personality quirks from, anyway?_

Its love of explosions and violence and general probably came from what was left of its programming; it was supposed to be a be a weapon, after all. The rest of it though…

_If its personality wasn't innate, then the only place it could have come from was…contact with my mind,_ she thought.

What that implied about her psyche made her cringe and pale behind her helmet all at once, and Blue Beetle immediately concluded that the scarab's childishness was just the result of its corrupted programming.

_Yes, that __**has**__ to be it,_ Blue Beetle decided.

She could sense a flare of irritation from the scarab and realized that it had been following her thoughts. "Are you sure we're still dimension-shifted?" she asked before it could say anything.

_**(Yes. No one can see, hear, or touch us. We're ghosts.)**_ The scarab reassured her.

"Good," Blue Beetle said, "because if I blow the dramatic entrance, we may as well pack up and go home right now."

_**(That would suck.)**_

"To put it mildly," Blue Beetle agreed. If she blew this, then she would have to try the UN military next. However, there were a variety of reasons why she thought her chances for success were lower with the United Nations.

So she really needed the theatrics to work.

"Scarab, can you give me a map of this place?" she asked.

_**(Piece of cake.)**_ A cerulean, three-dimensional hologram of the facility appeared in the air before her. _**(…you know, I still don't get that saying.)**_

"Neither do I, now that you mention it," Blue Beetle said absently, studying the map closely.

A big blue arrow appeared, pointing at a small office. _**(The place you're looking for is here.)**_

"Has anyone ever told you that your scanners are frighteningly good?" Blue Beetle asked, somewhat in awe by the artifact's prodigious powers.

_**(I'm pretty sure you've told me that before.)**_ It replied mildly.

Blue Beetle shook her head. "Do you know where the man we came to speak with is?" she asked.

A blinking dot appeared within the diagram. _**(Right there. Looks like he's headed back to his office. You ought to be able to beat him there if you hurry.)**_

"Perfect," she said, and began to fly quickly toward the massive complex which made up the bulk of the base. She had to phase through several walls to reach her destination in time, which was _not_ something she felt comfortable doing. However, there was too much at stake for her to ruin things simply because her instincts kept screaming at her to stop.

Minutes later, she reached a fairly large office. It was very plainly furnished, save for the katana and wakizashi which had been mounted on the wall. Clearly, the office of a traditional military man.

_Okay, here goes,_ she thought, dimension shifting the leather chair so she could sit in it before plopping down.

"Remember how we practiced it?" she asked the scarab.

_**(For the thousandth time, yes.)**_ It answered, exasperated.

"Good," Blue Beetle replied, attempting to prop her feet up on the huge oak desk that dominated the room. However, she hadn't dimension shifted it, so her feet went through it as though it wasn't there and fell to the floor. Blue Beetle sighed.

Moments later, the door opened, and a man wearing the olive green uniform of the JSSDF entered. His chair was invisible to him, causing a frown of confusion to form on his face.

"Now," Blue Beetle said to her scarab, and it reached out with its phase shifting capabilities.

The JSSDF flag officer released a cry of surprise as his chair abruptly appeared before his eyes, along with one of Japan's superwomen.

"Good afternoon, General Katsuro," the sapphire superwoman greeted him pleasantly.

"Security!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Get in here!"

"I'm afraid that won't do you much good, sir," Blue Beetle said. "You see, this room and everything in it are currently dimension shifted."

The man's stare was incredulous. "Dimension shifted?" he repeated with a frown, his hand slowly drifting toward his service pistol.

"Yes," Blue Beetle replied. "It's very complicated, but basically it means that we're just a little bit out of step with the rest of reality. And _that_ means we can't interact with it until we return to normal."

With no one responding to his shouts, he had little choice but to believe her. "What do you want?" he demanded.

Blue Beetle smiled. "To enlist with the JSSDF, essentially," she said.

"You've got to be kidding," Katsuro blurted out.

The sapphire superwoman had to force herself not to laugh. She remembered Katsuro; he'd been one of the generals to show up at NERV on the day the Third Angel had appeared, and she had seen him before she'd had to leave the command center to start preparing Unit One. He'd been so proud and self-assured then.

It was a stark contrast to what he looked like now. The general was confused, a little scared, yet also tempted by what she seemed to be offering; the whole mess of emotions was written plainly on his face.

_**(His heart rate is elevated. I'm reading increased levels of sweat production, too.)**_

_Thanks, scarab,_ she replied, before turning her attention back to Katsuro.

"I'm completely serious, General," she said. "Of course, I don't exactly have the standard recruitment process in mind. I was planning on skipping basic training, along with telling you who I am under this armor, for that matter."

Katsuro scowled and crossed his arms. "All right, enough being coy. What exactly are you proposing?" he asked. "Lay it out for me."

"Fair enough," Blue Beetle said. "I am volunteering to be your anti-Angel weapon. I will fight them in the name of the JSSDF, come to press conferences and publicity stunts to wave the flag around, _and_ I will share a little of the advanced alien technology that makes up this armor with you. I won't tell you who I am, but when you tell everyone that I did, I won't contradict you."

Katsuro gave her a look. "Advanced alien technology?"

Blue Beetle just gestured to herself. "Is that really _so_ hard to believe?" she asked.

The general hesitated, then shrugged. Blue Beetle could practically _see_ him decide it really wasn't all that important _where_ her technology came from.

"Why should I accept help from someone who won't even tell me her name?" Katsuro demanded next.

Blue Beetle smiled, though inwardly she was trembling; she'd been hoping the general would leap at the chance she was offering him, but she supposed she'd been foolish to expect that.

_**(As anxious as you are, he's worse. You can do this, Ritsuko.)**_

_Thanks, scarab,_ she thought.

"Because, the honor of the JSSDF and _yours_ were seriously stained when you and the UN military failed to do more than slow down the first Angel that attacked," she answered. "Jet Alone was supposed to be your ticket back into this war, but it didn't exactly go as planned. Now there are people in the government who are openly saying that the JSSDF should be folded back into the regular JSDF."

"Only a few people on the fringes are saying that," Katsuro retorted defensively.

"Maybe, for now," Blue Beetle replied. "But that aside, the fact is, the only way you can get back into this fight and redeem yourself is if you have the one thing on Earth besides an Evangelion that has killed an Angel. And that's me."

Katsuro paused, obviously thinking the matter over. The few seconds he remained silent were some of the longest in Blue Beetle's life.

_**(Pupil dilation shows that he's very tempted. He wants this. Relax.)**_ The scarab whispered in her mind.

"What's your angle?" Katsuro asked, frowning.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You've spelled out pretty clearly why I would want this little arrangement," he said, his eyes narrowing. "But you haven't told me why _you_ want it."

_Damn,_ she thought. She'd been hoping to tell him as little about herself as possible.

"Is it so hard to believe that someone besides you has an axe to grind with NERV?" Blue Beetle asked.

Katsuro stroked his chin, then chuckled. "Well, I guess a prick like Ikari _would_ have a list of enemies about a kilometer long…"

"So, do we have a deal?" Blue Beetle pressed.

"Even I can't make this decision unilaterally," Katsuro said. "How can I contact you later?"

Blue Beetle picked up a pen and pad sitting on the general's desk and wrote down a phone number. "I know you're probably going to ignore me when I say this, but don't bother trying to trace that," she said, handing the pad to Katsuro. "It'll save your tech people a very big headache."

Katsuro just grunted. "Since you showed yourself in, I'm sure you can show yourself out, too."

_**(Gee, think that might be a hint?)**_ The scarab asked with a mental snicker.

_Definitely,_ Blue Beetle replied. _Scarab, let's allow the General and his office to return to normal and get out of here._

_**(You got it.)**_ The scarab replied, allowing everything but Blue Beetle to return to its normal dimensional wavelength.

"Huh," Katsuro made a little impressed noise as the sapphire superwoman appeared to vanish before his very eyes.

Blue Beetle rolled her eyes. _I was hoping he'd at least jump a little,_ she thought, then took her leave.

Moments later, they were flying back through the sky toward Tokyo-3, still invisible to the rest of the world. Blue Beetle was silent, feeling pensive and worried.

Unsurprisingly, the scarab wasn't exactly happy about that, and soon moved to end the quiet.

_**(So, what do you think? Will he accept your offer?)**_ It asked.

"Why don't you tell me?" Blue Beetle retorted. "You're the one who was monitoring his vitals the whole time."

_**(Like I told you before, he wants your help.)**_ The scarab said. _**(He wants it a lot, but he's afraid that you'll backstab him or that there'll be a catch somewhere. I don't understand human nature well enough that I can predict what he'll do.)**_

"That makes two of us," Blue Beetle sighed. "I hope he does accept my help, though. If he turns me down, I'll have to try this with the UN military."

_**(And you don't have a lot of faith they'll accept?)**_ The scarab asked astutely.

"No, I don't," Blue Beetle said.

The UN army had suffered far heavier losses during the Third Angel's attack than the JSSDF had, but the JSSDF had endured a much worse blow to their pride. Japan was, after all, _their_ nation; their failure to defend it constituted a very significant loss of face, and having to continually play second fiddle to NERV only compounded their humiliation. They would want to get back into the fight far more than the international military organization.

Not only that, but SEELE's tendrils reached far deeper into the UN military than they did in the JSSDF. The exclusively Japanese force was relatively puny next to the international military, so SEELE didn't bother to infiltrate it directly; when they needed to manipulate the JSSDF, they manipulated the Japanese government. The UN military, in contrast, was packed full of flag officers that were under the cabal's collective thumb.

_**(Well, then, I guess we'll just have to hope that the JSSDF says yes.)**_ The scarab said cheerfully.

Blue Beetle smiled in spite of herself. "You know, the way you think is refreshingly simple sometimes," she commented.

She could feel the scarab perform the mental equivalent of a frown. _**(What's that supposed to mean?)**_ It asked crossly. _**(Are you calling me simple?)**_

"Oh no, not at all," Blue Beetle replied with a smirk, her tone suggesting that she might not be entirely honest about that.

_**(Rit~suuuuu~ko!) **_The scarab whined.

* * *

Several days later found the residents of the Katsuragi apartment enjoying a typical morning, if any such thing could be said to exist for them. Shinji was at the stove, finishing up breakfast, while Misato and Asuka were sitting at the table.

"Honestly, do you have to leave the TV on while we're eating?" the redhead complained. "It's distracting and just plain rude."

Misato remained mellow in the face of the Second Child's gripes, probably because she was already working on her second beer of that morning. "Well, I'm sorry if it bothers you, but this is my only chance to catch the news most days, and since I _am_ the one who pays the rent for this place…"

Asuka scowled and muttered something unintelligible, and for a few moments, relative silence reigned within the apartment.

Which made it easy for all three of them to hear the Channel 2 News anchorwoman.

"Good morning, Kanagawa Prefecture, I'm Chiyo Aoki. Our top story today: you've seen her in the sky, you've seen her on Youtube, and if you've been lucky, you've even gotten the chance to see her up close. But pretty soon you'll see her in the military. Yes, in a surprising move, the Blue Beetle has joined the JSSDF!"

Misato seemed to choke on her morning beer, then sent a spray of the stuff flying…all over Asuka, who happened to be sitting across the table from her.

"_Misato!_" the Second Child shrieked, eyes burning with rage.

"Shh," Misato shushed her charge, unappreciative of the danger of being maimed by a redheaded teenage girl.

"General Katsuro of the JSSDF announced the unexpected news yesterday evening," the anchorwoman continued, "stating that the Blue Beetle will be at the center of a new anti-Angel taskforce that the military is putting together. It is unconfirmed though widely believed that funding for this taskforce will be diverted from NERV. Channel 2 News will bring you more information on this story as it becomes available. In other news—"

Chiryo was cut off in mid sentence as Misato switched off the TV with the remote. The normally vibrant woman looked pale and shocked.

"Oh, great! As if this day couldn't get any better, the super bug had to go and try to compete with Evangelion!" Asuka scowled, the beer shower almost forgotten. "I'll bet my Unit Two will go without adequate armor just so the military can send more tanks and planes to get smashed by the next Angel!"

Shinji looked at Misato, then frowned. His guardian seemed even more shocked than this news merited.

"Misato? Are you all right?" he asked. "You look like you're about to be sick."

"Huh?" the purple haired woman blinked, then seemed to shake her herself out of her thoughts. "Oh, I'm fine, Shinji. Just surprised. And a little worried, I guess. Anyway, uh, are you two ready for school?"

"Yeah, I guess," Shinji said, still rather concerned. Misato really didn't look like she'd regained her equilibrium.

"Well, I _was_ just about ready to go, but then _someone_ had to spit beer all over me," Asuka grumbled. "I need to go shower and change. You'll have to call the school and let them know I'll be late."

"Oh, sure, no problem, Asuka," Misato said. "Guess you'll have to walk to school without her, Shinji."

"Right," he said, then reluctantly gathered his bag and left, all the while wondering about Misato's troubled reaction.

* * *

The factory was, from the outside, nothing special to look at. Once upon a time, it had been an automobile production plant, churning out cars to be exported all over the world. The Impact Wars had seen it converted to build tanks and other armored attack vehicles for the JSDF and JSSDF, but the return of peace had brought hard times to the factory. It had shut its doors, and dust had been allowed to gather inside.

Until recently.

The plant was once again alive with the great noise of heavy machinery and filled with bustling workers, but it was significantly different from the way it had been in the old days. Cutting-edge robotic assemblers toiled away tirelessly, and the objects rolling off the assembly lines certainly weren't tanks or cars.

In the midst of all the hustle and bustle of production, three men walked through the factory. All three wore hard hats, a mandatory precaution on the main floor, but only one member of the trio clearly belonged there. Of the other two, one man wore the olive green uniform of the JSSDF, while the third was clad in a white lab coat.

"Most impressive," General Katsuro said. "How quickly did you say they were producing these things, Ito-san?"

"We are currently completing one Bug every two hours, sir," the head foreman of the factory told him. "We expect, however, to reduce that by half within the next three months." He added proudly.

"Bug?" Katsuro asked, frowning.

Ito flushed. "Ah, sorry, sir," he said. "That's what we've taken to calling the BVG313 hunter-killer drones. They do sort of look like insects, don't they?"

Katsuro silently gazed at one of the nearly finished models. The blue and black craft was squat, with a mostly circular shape to it. Two emitters on the front looked like great, shining eyes, and the antennae from which it would receive radio commands did look very much like those of the average insect.

All in all, the thing looked like a giant robotic beetle.

"They do indeed," Katsuro said. "Well, Ito-san, I'm pleased to say that this facility has passed inspection with flying colors."

"Thank you, sir," Ito replied, obviously happy that the factory and the jobs it was providing the area would remain around.

"No, thank _you_," Katsuro said with a smile.

"Here, let me show you gentlemen out," Ito said, escorting them across the dangerous factory floor to the front entrance.

Katsuro and his shadow in the white coat shed their hard hats, exchanged polite farewells with the foreman, and then they were on their way. The pair climbed into the back of a waiting black sedan, which was soon driving through the streets of Kyoto-2.

"You were unusually quiet back there, even for you," Katsuro commented, once they were no longer within sight of the factory. "Saw something you disapproved of, Dr. Endo?"

"Not with the factory, sir," Endo replied, pushing his horn rimmed glasses up to the bridge of his nose.

Katsuro resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He supposed that civilian scientists like Endo were necessary to the military, at least from time to time, but that didn't mean he had to like dealing with them. "Well, come on, then," he said. "Spit it out, Doctor. What's on your mind?"

The scientist looked uncomfortable. "The JSSDF has spent a lot of money to get that factory, and others like it, up and working again in record time," he said. "I mean, it's only been a few weeks since the Blue Beetle shared some of her technology with us."

"Yes, what of it?" Katsuro asked with a frown.

Endo sighed and opened up a folder he'd been carrying with him, pulling out copies of the design schematics for a whole new generation of combat hardware. Drones like the BVG313's, new VTOL aircraft, artillery, small arms, tanks, machine guns…all of them based upon the revolutionary technologies that the Blue Beetle had granted them.

"These designs are all well beyond anything we've ever fielded before," Endo said. "In fact, if we hadn't complied with the new UN charter and shared this technology with our allies, they'd probably feel compelled to preemptively attack us before we could build too much of this stuff. And of course, the developments when this trickles down to the private sector are going to be enormous, even taking into account—"

"Get to the point, Endo," Katsuro said.

The scientist looked miffed at being interrupted, but he was nowhere near foolish enough to snap at a general for it. "This stuff is good, but against the Angels, it's still not good enough," he said. "Even the most optimistic models show that these new weapons can't penetrate an AT Field."

"Which is why the Blue Beetle herself will act as the centerpiece of our new anti-Angel taskforce," Katsuro said.

"But can we be sure that we can trust her to show when we need her?" Endo asked. "And for that matter, can we even safely assume that she has the firepower to stop an Angel, when these things we're building with her technology can't?"

"I never had any illusion that the Blue Beetle had given us her best toys, Doctor," Katsuro said. "She's more powerful than anything we're building. As for her showing up to the party, that's a gamble I'm willing to take."

"That's a pretty big risk," Endo said. "If she doesn't come when we need her, it'll be a _huge_ blow to the credibility of the JSSDF."

"Which would almost certainly lead to this branch of the military being disbanded. Yes, I know that," Katsuro said. "But I truly believe that the JSSDF will meet the same fate if we don't get back into this war. And I saw too damn much evidence that Japan needs the JSSDF during the Impact Wars to let it go under without doing absolutely _everything_ I can to stop that from happening."

* * *

The school was still absolutely abuzz by the time dismissal rolled around, much to Shinji's amazement. It seemed like everyone had heard the news about the Blue Beetle _well_ before arriving at Tokyo-3 Junior High that morning, and they talked about little else for the entire day.

_I get that it's big news, but that was just nuts,_ Shinji mused as he left the classroom, risking one quick glance back at Asuka before he departed. _Even the class rep was getting into it between classes._

The redhead had _not_ taken everyone's excited reaction to the news about the Blue Beetle well, and she had spent most of the day telling the "uninformed masses" why NERV and the Evangelions were vastly superior to the woman in the azure armor. Of course, trying to quell the excitement and rumors had been a futile task.

_But Asuka's nothing if not persistent,_ Shinji mused, deciding that it would only be foolishness on his part for him to try and make her stop.

"Hey, man, where you going?" Toji asked, catching up to the Third Child in the crowded hallway.

"Me and Toji were going to go to the arcade this afternoon," Kensuke added, seeming to appear from nowhere at Shinji's left side. "You in?"

Shinji sighed. "I can't go," he said. "I have a mountain of homework I have to get to."

It really wasn't fair, he mused. He was often forced to let his homework pile up because he had to endure tests at NERV. It felt like he was regularly punished for laziness, without the pleasure of actually procrastinating.

"Man, that stinks," Toji said as the trio exited the school building.

"Yeah," Kensuke said, commiserating for a moment before quickly brightening again. "Well, we two bad dudes will punch a couple of ninjas for you on our way to saving the president."

"Um, okay," Shinji said, not getting the reference. "That—"

He was interrupted by the honking of a car horn. He initially shrugged it off, but then he heard someone call his name. "Huh?" he muttered to himself, looking around in confusion.

Toji spotted the person who'd called to the Third Child before Shinji did. "Whoa, Shinji, do you know that blond bombshell over there?" he asked.

Shinji finally spotted the car that had honked, and saw the Project-E chairperson sitting behind the wheel. "Um, yeah," he said. "She works at NERV. I don't know why she's here, though."

"She works for NERV, too? _**Man**_, that place is just bursting at the seams with total babes!" Toji crowed. "Hey, Shinji, you don't suppose your dad is secretly a huge hentai or something, do you?"

Shinji frowned. On the face of it, the idea seemed completely laughable. Then again, he _had_ noticed that the female personnel at NERV tended to range somewhere between "pretty" and "unrealistic male fantasy."

"…nah," he decided eventually. "Well, I have to go, um, apparently. See you guys tomorrow."

"The life of an Evangelion pilot is glamorous indeed, my friend," the Third Child heard Kensuke comment to Toji.

Shinji rolled his eyes and kept heading for Ritsuko's car, pretending he hadn't heard the remark.

"Hello, Shinji," the scientist greeted him as he drew near. "I was afraid you weren't going to notice me."

"Hello, Ritsuko," he greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I ended up taking a pretty late lunch today," she said. "I left the base to get something to eat, and then realized I was right by the school. So I thought I'd offer you a ride home."

Shinji smiled. He seriously doubted that coincidence had actually been involved in that series of events at all, and he found himself touched by the gesture.

"Thank you," he said, "a ride home would be good."

"Then hop in," Ritsuko said.

Shinji quickly climbed into the passenger seat, and the scientist started up the car. Soon they were driving through Tokyo-3, and at a far saner pace than Misato ever used.

"So how was school, Shinji?" Ritsuko asked him.

"All right, I guess," he said. Then realizing this was a rather short answer, he added, "Everybody couldn't stop talking about the Blue Beetle, though."

Ritsuko chuckled. "Believe me, no matter how bad it was at school, I can guarantee NERV was ten times worse."

"I'll bet," Shinji said. "Ritsuko, are you worried about what'll happen to NERV because of this?"

"For myself, no, not really," the blonde said. "I mean, I like to think I have a skill set that's pretty desirable to most companies, so I'm not afraid I won't be able to find other employment if NERV goes under. I just hope that the Blue Beetle's up to the task she's taken on." The scientist seemed to become very grave as she said this last bit, and Shinji frowned, wondering if something was the matter. However, Ritsuko appeared to quickly shake off whatever had come over her.

"Are _you_ worried?" she asked him. "After all, I'm sure you're pretty invested in EVA, in your own way."

Shinji paused a moment to consider the question. "I don't think I'd actually miss EVA. At least, not that much," he said. "But I would miss some of the things that come with it."

"What do you mean?" Ritsuko asked.

"Well, if not for Evangelion, I never would have come to Tokyo-3 in the first place," Shinji said. "I'd still be living with my uncle."

Ritsuko nodded. "Right," she said, "I read your file when you first started piloting for us—I hope you don't mind, by the way—and it didn't seem like you had a very good life there."

"Well, it's not like it was _bad_," Shinji said, not wanting Ritsuko to get the wrong idea about his uncle. "In fact, I miss it sometimes; it was quiet. But it was kind of empty, too. I don't really want to go back, but if NERV shuts down, that's probably what's going to happen."

Ritsuko smiled. "I wouldn't count on that," she said. "I think Misato's gotten pretty attached to you. It probably doesn't hurt that you do her laundry and cook for her."

Shinji smiled, but faintly. "Maybe."

"Hmm, tell you what," Ritsuko said. "If Misato does decide she doesn't need her roommate anymore in a world where Evangelion isn't required, then you can live with me."

Shinji blinked, barely daring to believe he'd heard correctly. "Really? You're serious?"

"Sure," Ritsuko said. "Why not? It would be nice to live with a friend again. Last time I did that was when Misato and I stayed together in college, and you're obviously a much more considerate and helpful roommate than _she_ was."

Shinji chuckled, but he could feel his eyes becoming dangerously liquid. He turned his head so he was facing the window. Ritsuko had, he told himself, probably been motivated by pity to make the offer. He really shouldn't take her up on it if Misato kicked him out; he'd probably just be a burden on her.

Even so, he was still very touched by the gesture.

"Thank you," he finally said several moments later, when he trusted himself to speak.

Ritsuko smiled brightly at him, and a pleasant warm feeling washed over Shinji at the sight. "You're welcome," she said. "Oh, it looks like we've reached your stop."

The scientist parked the car in front of Misato's apartment building, and Shinji ambled out. "Thank you, Ritsuko, for the ride," he said. "Um, would you like to come over for dinner sometime? Perhaps tonight?"

"I'd like that a lot," Ritsuko said, looking up at the window of Misato's apartment, "but my schedule is going to be insane for the foreseeable future. Besides, things are a little…dicey between Misato and I right now."

"Oh, I didn't know that," Shinji said. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Ritsuko just nodded. "Well, I should be getting back to headquarters," she said. "I'll see you around, Shinji."

"See you, Ritsuko," he said. "And thanks again for the ride."

"You're welcome," she said.

The scientist then drove off, waiting until she had put a good two blocks between herself and Shinji before she allowed herself to heave a sigh.

_**(What's wrong?)**_ The scarab asked.

"Oh, I guess I just wish it was that easy to make everyone so happy," Ritsuko said.

_**(Misato?)**_

Ritsuko smirked. "You're definitely getting more shrewd," she said. "Yes, I haven't spoken to Misato lately, but I'm sure she's pissed off at me. I flushed any goodwill I earned from her for saving the Children down the drain, that's for sure."

_**(But allying with the JSSDF was necessary for your plan to work.)**_ The scarab pointed out.

"I know, but that doesn't mean I have to like all the consequences," Ritsuko said.

* * *

Of all the meetings Gendo had ever had with SEELE, this was probably the one he had wanted to avoid the most. Which wasn't surprising, considering that never before had he been forced to meet with SEELE so they could discuss how to avert an unfolding nightmare scenario.

"How could you have let this happen, Ikari?" SEELE 07 demanded the moment the monoliths appeared in the holographic meeting chamber.

Gendo arched an eyebrow. He'd realized that his co-conspirators' nerves would be jangled, of course, but not by this much.

"I take it you are referring to the Blue Beetle's recent alliance with the JSSDF, Councilman?" he asked sardonically.

"Do not toy with us, Ikari," SEELE 02 warned. "Of _**course**_ that is what he meant."

"Ah, I was confused, because I do not recall this council ever declaring that it was my responsibility to monitor the Blue Beetle and ensure she didn't interfere with the Scenario," Gendo said.

"Perhaps not, but managing the Scenario _is_ your responsibility," SEELE 07 retorted. "That includes removing any potential snags, and this one could easily prove to be disastrous."

_That_ Gendo couldn't disagree with. It had been one of their greatest fears that the conventional military would find some way to get back into the war against the Angels. Once they were involved in the war again, they could siphon off resources that would otherwise have gone to the Human Instrumentality Project. Resources that might prove vital for the successful execution of the Scenario.

"If I remember correctly, all of you gentlemen agreed with me when I stated how unlikely it was that either Green Lantern or Blue Beetle would become one of those potential snags," Gendo pointed out instead.

_Of course, none of us ever believed that either of them would go so far as to join the military in order to gain legitimacy,_ he mused darkly.

The presence of women with stupendous powers in Tokyo-3 had made the massively expensive Evangelions look superfluous to some, yes. That had been bad so far as public opinion was concerned, but Gendo had never truly feared that the Japanese government or the UN might start to feel EVA was unnecessary.

So long as the superwomen were merely very powerful vigilantes, NERV and the Human Instrumentality Committee could simply point out that the likes of the Blue Beetle and the Green Lantern couldn't truly be relied upon.

Unfortunately, this development changed the equation significantly.

"Are you trying to shift the responsibility for this miscalculation to _us?_" SEELE 07 exclaimed.

"Enough!" SEELE 01 broke in, before Gendo could respond. "Ikari is correct in saying that we all have erred. Therefore, we all must fix the problem."

"How can we?" SEELE 11 asked. "The UN General Assembly has already voted to divert a portion of NERV's auxiliary budget to the JSSDF's new taskforce. If it and Blue Beetle are successful in destroying more Angels before NERV does, it is only a matter of time before they give the JSSDF even more of NERV's funding."

"Perhaps," Keel conceded. "But the auxiliary budget is the only thing the General Assembly can meddle with by itself. Anything else requires the unanimous consent of the Security Council. I trust I don't need to remind you that we control every individual who is a member of that body, save China's representative."

"Even our abilities to control people have their limits," SEELE 03 warned. "If NERV consistently appears useless next to the Blue Beetle and her JSSDF allies, the public pressure to pull NERV's funding may convince the members of the Security Council to defy us."

"And that is where Ikari comes in," SEELE 01 said, and Gendo could easily picture the malicious grin on Keel's withered face, even though he couldn't see the man. "NERV must not be allowed to appear impotent next to the Blue Beetle."

"Fortunately for us, the Second Branch in the United States is nearly ready to install a prototype S2 organ into Unit Four," SEELE 03 said. "Once this is achieved, it will be sent to you. Unit Three will also be shipped to Japan, as soon as it receives its own S2 organ."

"With these resources at your disposal, NERV should be able to ensure that it destroys the next Angel, _regardless_ if the Blue Beetle…interferes," SEELE 05 said.

"I understand," Gendo said, easily able to read between the lines.

If NERV didn't achieve victory next time, there would be serious consequences, both for himself personally and the Scenario as a whole.

_But of course, I already knew that,_ he thought.

"Also, I realize this probably goes without saying, especially to you, but this problem will go away if the Blue Beetle…_happens_ to disappear," SEELE 01.

"The necessary steps will be taken," Gendo said. "All of them."

"See that they are," SEELE 01 said.

"Ikari," SEELE 03 spoke up.

"Yes?" Gendo asked.

"Given the urgency of this, I would suggest that you skip right to the foremost…_professional_, in the industry," SEELE 03 said. "There's a man known as Slade Wilson. He charges exorbitant fees, but this council has employed his services many times before. He has yet to fail us."

Gendo nodded. With anyone else, he would've suspected that SEELE was just trying to get him to hire one of their puppets, but he knew of Slade Wilson.

That was a man who would _**never**_ tolerate being a mere pawn of the old men.

"I understand," Gendo said.

* * *

It was a normal day in the life of Ritsuko Akagi. The blonde scientist was sitting in her office, drinking coffee and poring over data concerning the Second Branch's upcoming activation experiment. Nothing could be more ordinary.

_Well, except for the fact that it's actually __**me**__ here,_ she mused with a small smirk. Ever since the JSSDF had decided to accept her help, Ritsuko's life had become a haze of PR events and sessions spent collaborating with JSSDF engineers. Her holographic double had been coming to NERV far more often than she herself had lately.

_Hell, forget NERV. I've barely been in the __**city**__ recently,_ she thought, realizing that driving Shinji home that day had been about the only thing she'd done within Tokyo-3 besides sleep.

She shook her head and tried to focus on what she was reading again, but she didn't get very far before a certain symbiotic life form spoke up.

_**(Ritsuko, I'm detecting Green Lantern energy.)**_ The scarab informed her, sounding worried, as it always did where Misato and her power ring were concerned. _**(She's headed in this direction.)**_

The scientist sighed. Having been away from the city so much, she'd avoided Misato without even trying, but Ritsuko knew that this meeting would have to happen sooner or later.

Still, she wished it could've been later rather than sooner.

_**(I could phase you out of here.)**_ The scarab suggested, apparently picking up on Ritsuko's desire to avoid this. _**(She'll never even know we were here at all.)**_

Ritsuko briefly considered it, then shook her head.

_No, _she silently told the scarab. _This is going to have to happen eventually. Besides, Misato's my friend. She deserves more than to have me run away from her like a coward._

_**(Fine.)**_ The scarab grumbled.

Moments later, the door to Ritsuko's office was thrown open with enough force to make it bang against the wall. The scientist grimaced, feeling fairly certain that there was now a doorknob-sized hole in the plaster there. She really needed a doorstop.

"So, _there_ you are," Misato said triumphantly, standing in the doorway and paying no heed to the damage she'd just caused.

Ritsuko frowned. _Scarab, can she distinguish between me and Holo-Ritsuko that easily?_

_**(Yes, she can do that with her ring.)**_ It answered.

"Hello, Misato. It's good to see you," Ritsuko said. The Operations Director's eyes narrowed at this mundane pleasantry, and the blonde quickly continued before her friend could start shouting. "It's such a nice day out. Would you like to take an early lunch with me? We could eat by the lake."

Misato stopped, obviously realizing that her friend wanted to get away from all the cameras and other surveillance devices inside the base before they had their conversation about Ritsuko's latest move. "Yeah, that would be nice, Rits," she said, her tone and posture belying a barely restrained anger.

"Wonderful," Ritsuko said, much more convincingly. "Let's go."

The two women made a brief stop at the NERV commissary to pick up box lunches for themselves before heading out of the base and to the lake. Misato maintained an angry silence for the whole trip.

_Any hidden monitoring devices around here?_ Ritsuko asked the scarab as the two of them approached a bench near the edge of the lake.

_**(Not a one. You two can talk freely.)**_

"So, Misato," Ritsuko said as she sat down on the bench, "I guess you're wondering about—"

"Why the _**hell**_ did you decide to work for the JSSDF?" Misato demanded at once.

"…I have my reasons," Ritsuko said, not able to meet her friend's eyes.

"…that's _it?_" Misato asked, scowling at Ritsuko's 'answer'. "I'm supposed to just accept that? Ritsuko, the consequences of your actions are already being felt around here! The fate of NERV could be in jeopardy, but I'm supposed to be okay with it because you 'have your reasons'?"

"Come on, Misato, you know that NERV isn't exactly run by saints," Ritsuko said. "Present company excluded, of course."

Misato grimaced in response to the last bit. "I know that, but NERV is still the organization that's destroyed all the Angels except the last one," she said. "You can't just do things that might make the government pull our funding!"

"Would it really be so bad?" Ritsuko asked. "If NERV was shut down? Would it really? You wouldn't be needed every time an Angel showed up anymore. We could fight them together, as the Green Lantern and the Blue Beetle, instead of making teenagers defend humanity for us."

Misato blinked.

_**(Oh, you scored a hit there.)**_ The scarab said.

_You think?_ Ritsuko replied, easily able to read the look on her friend's face. Misato was definitely tempted by the idea of getting to fight all the remaining Angels herself.

Unfortunately, she wasn't quite tempted _enough._

"You still haven't answered my question," Misato said. "_Why_ are you doing this?"

Ritsuko looked away from Misato's gaze again. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you that," she said.

The Ops Director glared hard at the Project-E chairperson for several moments. However, when Ritsuko just remained silent, Misato finally sighed and plopped down on the bench next to the blonde.

"You know that Asuka's completely freaked out about this?" she asked. "She'd never admit it to anyone, but the idea of NERV and the Evangelion program being shut down terrifies her."

"…I expected as much," Ritsuko said.

She didn't like the Second Child, but that didn't mean she wanted to see the brash redhead devastated by suddenly becoming useless to the war effort. Unfortunately, there was no avoiding that if she was going to get NERV shut down.

"So, it's that important, huh?" Misato asked.

"Yeah, it is," Ritsuko said.

"Then why won't you **tell** me about it?" Misato barked.

Ritsuko flinched, the outburst catching her by surprise. For the first time, she feared that Misato might _force_ her to divulge the reasons for her actions.

_And she's about the only person who could do it, too,_ the scientist thought.

_**(She could make a good try at it, I'll give her that much.)**_ The scarab said with its version of a growl, but its bluster sounded like so much macho posturing to Ritsuko. It didn't want to engage in a second battle with the Green Lantern, but it would never admit to being afraid.

The scientist crossed her arms and refused to answer Misato. The Ops Director glared silently at the Project-E chairperson in response, and the tense moment dragged on.

Until, that was, it was broken by the approach of Makoto.

"Major Katsuragi! Dr. Akagi!" the lieutenant called, running across the grass toward them.

"What is it, Hyuga?" Ritsuko asked, glad for the interruption.

However, the technician didn't immediately answer. Instead, he nearly doubled over as he came to a stop next to the women, panting heavily.

"Did you sprint all the way here from headquarters?" Misato asked, wondering what could be so urgent. "Is there an Angel attacking?"

"N-no," Makoto gasped out, straightening up with a visible effort. "It's…the Second Branch. It's…disappeared."

Misato turned a look at Ritsuko, who shook her head. Then, without exchanging a word, the two of them started running toward the pyramid.

"Hey!" a still breathless Makoto called after them as he reluctantly began to follow the pair. "W-Wait up!"

* * *

"My god," Maya breathed, several hours later. "This is…this is horrible. It's unbelievable."

Ritsuko usually didn't like it when her underlings said things like that. So far as she was concerned, it was not their job to label things as "good" or "bad." They were scientists; they dealt with objective facts only.

This time, though, she was willing to make an exception.

"Play it again," she ordered.

"Yes, sempai," Maya said quietly, doing as she was told.

Immediately, the view screen on the far wall came back to life. It was a satellite image, showing one structure in the middle of a desert in Nevada. For several seconds, everything looked placid enough.

Then, red light flared from the lone building, which they knew was NERV's Second Branch. The video started to play in slow motion at this point, but it did little so far as seeing anything went. The light quickly grew in intensity until it was blinding. When it faded seconds later, all that remained was a hole in the ground.

"There were no survivors," Maya said softly. "Nothing was found there except a crater."

"They were swallowed by a Dirac Sea," Ritsuko said. "Probably one more volatile than the Twelfth Angel. They turned on that S2 organ they installed into Unit Four, and it did this. There's no other explanation."

_**(Isn't this good?)**_ The scarab asked tentatively. _**(This will make NERV look even worse. This'll help convince the UN that they should pull NERV's funding and leave fighting the Angels to you.)**_

_Well, yes, that's true, but that doesn't make what happened any less horrible,_ Ritsuko said. _There were a lot good people there._

"Sempai?" Maya asked, perturbed by her superior's long silence.

"Has someone been sent to take soil samples from the crater?" Ritsuko asked.

"Yes, sempai," Maya answered. "They're shipping some of them here. They should arrive in just under a week."

"Good," Ritsuko said. "There's nothing else we can do here until then. Not with nothing more to work with than a few seconds of video taken from orbit. You can go back to your regular duties."

"Thank you, sempai," Maya said with obvious relief, then quickly scampered out of the room.

Ritsuko remained there for several seconds, looking at the viewer. The final frame of the video was frozen there, showing that empty crater.

_**(Standing around looking at that big hole in the ground isn't going to help you, or, by extension, me.)**_ The scarab said, sounding peeved. _**(Honestly, do you **_**always**_** have to find something that makes you depressed and then contemplate it for three hours?)**_

_Oh, I'm sorry that the deaths of thousands of people leaves me feeling a little disquieted,_ she thought sarcastically, a scowl forming on her face. _Still…I guess you do have a point. This isn't exactly the most productive use of my time._

She left the small viewing room and was unsurprised to find Misato waiting out in the hallway for her.

"Hey," Ritsuko said.

"Hey yourself," Misato replied.

The two of them began to walk down the hall together. They were silent until they reached one of the enormous escalators which could be found inside the base.

"So, what's the situation?" Ritsuko asked, finally breaking the quiet.

"The American government is making noise about pulling out of NERV entirely," Misato replied, her tone bitter.

"They won't," Ritsuko said. "They know they'll be in big trouble if an Angel attacks them without NERV to help them."

"Hmph, you're probably right, but I just heard that they're shipping Unit Three here. They're afraid of it now, so they're dumping it on us," Misato spat.

"Considering what happened, I can't say I really blame them," Ritsuko replied.

That uncomfortable silence returned. This time, it was Misato who eventually broke it.

"Look," she whispered, leaning close to Ritsuko to ensure that even NERV's surveillance couldn't record what she was saying, "I realize you still won't tell me what you're up to, but can you at least say to me—honestly—that you're still one of the good guys?"

Ritsuko almost laughed at the irony of her friend's question, and she restrained herself only because she knew _that_ wouldn't exactly reassure Misato.

_When I was helping Gendo, she never suspected a thing. Only now that I'm trying to fix things is she breathing down my neck,_ Ritsuko thought.

"I'm one of the good guys," Ritsuko said with as much sincerity as she could muster.

Misato nodded, and the Operations Director was satisfied.

For the moment, anyway.

* * *

Toji Suzuhara wasn't sure that he'd ever been so bored before in his life.

Of course, he had pretty much felt the same way the last time he'd endured one of Sensei's infamous Second Impact lectures, and he would probably have similar thoughts the _next_ time he was forced to listen to one.

Yet, even knowing this didn't stop him from thinking that today was particularly bad. The jock was currently trying his hardest not to doze off in class, but it was a battle that he was losing.

His eyelids began to droop closed, but he woke with a start before he could fully cross over into dream land.

_Class rep'll kill me if she catches me sleeping in class again,_ he thought, casting a nervous glance back at the freckled girl.

He'd thought Hikari was cute when he'd first met her, before he'd discovered how much of a ruthless authoritarian she was. It always made him wonder what he'd been _thinking_ when he remembered that day.

Toji was dozing off again by this point, except this time, he didn't realize it. Indeed, the only thing that saved him from a rather frightening nightmare (and the embarrassment of waking up from it with a loud yelp) was the school's PA system.

"_Toji Suzuhara_," it crackled to life, "_please report to the principle's office immediately. Toji Suzuhara, report to the principle's office immediately._"

Suddenly wide awake, the jock sat straight up at his desk, the summon catching him completely by surprise. Several of his classmates released muffled snickers; it was obvious that they believed he was in big trouble.

_Unfortunately, they're probably right,_ he thought with a grimace, getting up from his seat.

"May I go, Sensei?" he asked.

"Hmm? Oh, of course," the wizened old teacher said with a dismissive wave, before launching back into his usual lecture.

Toji quietly left the classroom, then walked toward his destination at a very, very slow pace, not eager for what probably awaited him there. He tried to remember what he'd done recently that could both be traced back to him and merited a trip to see the principal.

_He can't know that I was the one who broke that window with a soccer ball, can he?_ The jock wondered.

He suddenly realized that he was standing right in front of the principal's door, despite his best efforts to delay this moment for as long as possible. Toji took a deep breath, straightened his spine, and then knocked on the door.

"Toji Suzuhara entering," he announced himself, then walked inside.

Only to find himself assailed with the fear that he'd entered the wrong office entirely, because it certainly wasn't the school's stern old principal sitting behind the desk. Instead, he found himself confronted with a blond bombshell in a short black skirt, black nylons, a blue blouse, and a white lab coat.

He blinked, struck dumb by this switch-a-roo. _I'm…pretty sure I'm not dreaming,_ he thought. _Though, if I am, I don't want to wake up any time soon!_

"Ah, Suzuhara-kun, good," the woman said in a pleasant but professional manner that made him realize he was probably awake. "Please, have a seat."

"Uh, yes, ma'am," he said.

She smirked at him. "You don't remember me, do you?"

"You came to pick up Shinji once," Toji said. "Your name's…Ritsuko, right?"

She nodded. "Ritsuko Akagi, yes," she said. "But I'm also a friend of Misato's. We met at the party to celebrate her promotion."

"Oh, yes! I remember you now," he said, as that memory finally came back to him.

_How the hell did I not notice how much of a __**babe**__ this woman is back then?_ He wondered. _She's as hot as Misato!_

"You must be wondering why I'm here," Ritsuko said. "And, for that matter, why you're here."

"Um, yeah," Toji agreed, even though his train of thought hadn't _quite_ arrived at that station yet.

"Well, I'll just lay it all out for you," she said, suddenly becoming a good deal more grave. "Evangelion Unit Three is being shipped to Tokyo-3 and will arrive in under two weeks. NERV is going to need a pilot."

The jock's eyes widened, and a sick feeling formed in his stomach. "Wait a minute," he said. "You don't mean…"

Ritsuko nodded. "I do," she said. "The Marduk Institute has nominated you, Toji Suzuhara, to be the Fourth Child."

The jock swallowed, thinking back to that single, terrifying time he'd been inside the cockpit of an Evangelion before. It had been during the Second Battle of Tokyo-3, when the Fourth Angel had attacked the city.

Toji remembered it far more vividly than he wanted to, especially the part when Shinji had broken down crying at the end. He usually felt that any guy over the age of five who allowed himself to cry was being a complete wimp, but Shinji had been in such obvious pain and turmoil that the jock had never felt any scorn for the Evangelion pilot.

Kensuke's maniac enthusiasm for Evangelion had somehow survived the experience, but Toji wasn't so foolish. He knew quite well that piloting an Evangelion wasn't fun, glamorous, or glorious in any form.

"I…I'm flattered, Doc," he said. "Really, I am, but I think I'm going to have to take a pass on this one."

"I was afraid you'd say that." The blonde said.

"So…are we done?" Toji asked.

"No, now I have to offer you a bribe," Ritsuko sighed, looking miserable. "If you agree to this, NERV is prepared to transfer your younger sister to the medical ward at our base. She'll receive the best possible care there, free of charge, of course. She may even walk again someday."

The jock's breath caught in his throat. If there was anything that haunted him more than those few minutes inside Unit One, and the knowledge that his best friend endured that on a regular basis, it was what had happened to his younger sister.

_My fault,_ he thought, his hands balling into fists in his lap.

He had blamed Shinji for it when he'd discovered that the smaller boy was the pilot of the purple robot, but that had just been because he'd been desperate to have a target for his anger besides himself. It had been his responsibility to keep Mariko out of harm's way, and he'd failed miserably.

_Now I have a chance to make it right,_ he thought.

"I realize this is a terrible position I'm putting you in," Ritsuko said, after he had remained silent for several long moments. "If I had my way, your sister would've already received the treatment she needs from NERV, along with anyone else injured during an Angel battle. Unfortunately—"

"I'll do it," Toji said. "I'll be your pilot."

"Oh, good. I'm glad," Ritsuko said, though she sounded anything but. "Here, you'll have to sign these papers…"

She produced a sheaf of documents thicker than the average novel, and Toji was obliged to sign in about ten thousand places.

"There," he said after he was finally done, dropping the pen and shaking his cramped hand. "Is there anything else I have to do?"

"For now, all we need is for you to show up for the activation test on time," Ritsuko said, getting up from her chair.

"Right," Toji said.

The blonde looked like she was about to leave, but then she stopped. "For whatever it's worth, I'm sorry about putting you in this position," she said softly.

The jock waved a dismissive hand. "So long as my sister gets fixed up, it'll all be worth it."

Ritsuko gave him a small smile. "You're a very brave young man."

At just about any other time, receiving a compliment like that from a babe like the blonde in front of him probably would've prompted the jock to make some kind of move. However, Toji was currently filled with a mixture of cautious hope for his sister and the sinking feeling that he'd just signed his life away.

"Thanks," he said instead.

"You can return to class now," Ritsuko said. "I'll see you, Toji-kun."

"Yeah, see you soon, Doc," Toji said, not moving to get up from his seat.

Ritsuko gave him a concerned look, then seemed to decide that if he wanted to loiter in the office, she was fine with that. Without another word, she quietly departed.

Toji sighed, slumping in his chair. "Damn it, Suzuhara," he muttered to himself, "what have you gotten yourself into now?"

* * *

_South Africa_

The great manor house was opulent; there was just no other way to describe it. The very square, very Victorian-style structure was three stories tall and completely surrounded by dense jungle, with only a dirt path connecting it to civilization. The juxtaposition of such luxury right next to the wilderness was like a living echo of the Age of Imperialism.

Not that the owner of the home cared. Few people were willing to make the trek out to his home to visit him, not in an era when it was easier than ever before to reach out and touch someone.

Case in point, the owner's phone was ringing right at that very moment.

"Wilson residence," he said, picking up the receiver.

"Greetings, Mr. Wilson," a voice he didn't recognize spoke. "I'm in the employ of a very powerful man who is finding a certain individual to be very problematic. I'd heard you were a man who was exceedingly good at making such people simply…go away."

Wilson sighed, rolling his one good eye to look up at the ceiling. People who'd never used his services before always seemed to feel the need to beat around the bush endlessly, and if he didn't play along, they'd often get spooked and end their business relationship before it began.

"Yes," he said, "I'm extremely good at providing such services. Some even say I'm the best in the world."

"Good, that's very good," the still anonymous voice on the other end of the line said. "I expect that the thorn in my employer's side will be very difficult to, shall we say, _terminate_."

"That won't be a problem," Wilson promised confidently. "However, you must realize that my services don't come cheaply."

"Of course, what is your fee?"

"Minimum fee is ten million euros per head, plus expenses," Wilson said. "However, for especially difficult assignments, I often raise my price. I can't give you a solid number until you give me the name of the person you want removed."

"The Blue Beetle."

Wilson's eye widened. He had heard of the woman in the blue and black armor that had been causing such a stir in Japan, and he knew that killing her would not be an easy job.

_She would be worthy prey indeed,_ he thought, feeling excitement course through him.

The assignments Wilson had taken during the Impact Wars had provided him with a number of interesting and stimulating experiences; he had encountered super soldiers and war machines that would've been science fiction years earlier. However, he had yet to face anyone or anything that made him believe, for even a _moment_, that he would meet with defeat.

He had made enough money in that short but terrifically violent era to last ten lifetimes, but the idea of a battle where he might have to struggle to obtain victory intrigued him. However, he was careful to keep it out of his voice.

"Fifty million euros. Not a cent less," he said flatly.

"That's…five times your regular fee."

"It's five times my _minimum_ fee," he corrected. "This job will require the use of more…resources than I normally need to utilize. I'll have to bring my assistants along."

"Fine," the voice said. "My employer will pay."

"Good," Wilson said. "I'll expect half the money up front and half upon completion of the job. I have an old associate named Wintergreen who currently resides in Cape Town. You may see to it that he receives the initial payment, and then I will travel to Japan to begin the job."

"Very well. Good day, Mr. Wilson."

* * *

Days passed in relative calm for Tokyo-3. No Angels made an appearance, and there was no announcement that NERV was to be disbanded. The news of what had happened to the American NERV base and Unit Four continued to cast a pall over NERV Central, but otherwise the city was enjoying a period of quiet.

So Shinji was pretty surprised when the very routine and regular rhythm his life tended to take on in the absence of NERV business was broken not by an Angel, but by a second appearance by Ritsuko Akagi at his school.

"Hello there, Shinji," she greeted him from her car as he left the building for the day. "Would you like a ride home again?"

She was smiling, he noticed, but the expression looked forced. Shinji very much got the feeling that she hadn't come to pick him up so she could convey some good news to him.

Still, he liked Ritsuko, so he certainly wasn't going to be rude and decline the offer. He climbed into the passenger seat.

"Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome," Ritsuko replied, and soon they were driving away from Tokyo-3 Junior High.

For several long moments, there was a tense silence within the car. Finally, Ritsuko broke it.

"Shinji…" she began, then hesitated, apparently not quite sure what to say. "You…you know that Unit Three will be arriving here tomorrow, right?" she asked.

Shinji nodded. "Yes, I've heard about the activation test scheduled at the Matsushiro base."

They reached a red light at this point, allowing Ritsuko to take her eyes off the road to study Shinji. The Third Child soon felt the urge to squirm beneath the scientist's probing gaze.

"You really don't know, do you?" she asked. "Damn it, I _thought_ Misato wasn't going to tell you, but I figured someone else would have let it slip around you."

Shinji frowned. "What? What are you talking about?"

The red light turned green, and Ritsuko started driving again. She sighed heavily. "Shinji, I don't know how to tell you this, but the Marduk Institute selected your friend Toji to pilot Unit Three."

Shinji blinked. "Wha…what?" he stammered, the news hitting him like a punch in the gut.

The idea seemed utterly insane to him at first. Toji, an Evangelion pilot? No way. Toji was one of the few parts of his life these days that didn't have anything to do with NERV (even if their initial encounter had had _everything_ to do with Evangelion), and damn it, Shinji liked it that way.

Also, unlike Kensuke, Toji had never seemed to view Evangelion piloting as desirable. Shinji didn't discuss NERV affairs with the jock often, but he'd always gotten the feeling that Toji truly realized how…unpleasant Evangelion could be.

_Not to mention that Toji can't have many warm and fuzzy feelings for NERV, considering what happened to his sister,_ Shinji thought, feeling an all too familiar stab of guilt.

Ritsuko seemed to follow his train of thought effortlessly. "NERV offered him the best possible medical care for his sister, if he agreed to pilot," she said softly.

"…oh," was all Shinji could say, feeling as though his stomach had plunged into his shoes.

_My fault,_ he thought.

If only he had managed to do a better job of controlling Unit One in that first battle, Toji's sister never would have been injured. And if _that _hadn't happened, then NERV wouldn't have any leverage on Toji to make him pilot.

Shinji knew he was ultimately responsible for his best friend's agreement to take the great risks that went with piloting an Evangelion.

"I'm…I'm sorry," Ritsuko said after several long moments of tense silence.

A thought suddenly occurred to the Third Child. "Why didn't Misato tell me this?" he asked, frowning.

"I don't know for sure," Ritsuko said. "Misato and I haven't been speaking much, lately. But knowing her, I'd say she kept it from you because she knew how hard the knowledge would hit you. And she probably didn't quite know how to tell you. That's probably a piece of it, too." She added.

Shinji was quiet for another long moment, turning the information over in his head several times.

"Why did you tell me?" he asked abruptly.

Ritsuko bit her lower lip. "I told you because…because NERV puts the responsibilities of an adult—of a man—on your shoulders. I just thought we should treat you like a man, too, instead of keeping things from you 'for your own good.'" She said. "I guess I just thought you deserved at least that much respect."

Shinji blinked, a little surprised by the answer. He didn't think anyone had ever really treated him as quite so grown up before.

"…thank you," he said.

"You're welcome," Ritsuko said softly.

For the third time during the trip, silence reigned. However, this time it was far less uncomfortable than before. No words were spoken again until they had nearly reached the apartment building Shinji currently called home.

"Ritsuko?"

"Yes, Shinji?"

"You'll watch out for Toji, won't you?" he asked.

She turned her gaze away from the road just long enough to glance at him and quirk an eyebrow. "Shinji," she said, "you're the one who will be fighting alongside him, once he starts piloting in combat. I'll just be in the command center. You'll be the one in a position to watch his back, not me."

"I know that, I was talking about the activation test," Shinji clarified. "I know things can sometimes go wrong when you try to start up an Evangelion for the first time…"

His mind involuntarily flashed to the memory of how badly beaten up Rei had looked when he'd first arrived at NERV, as well as his own terrifying experience inside a berserk Unit Zero.

"…and I just hoped you could make sure that doesn't happen to Toji," Shinji finished.

"I don't have complete control of any Evangelion, Shinji," Ritsuko warned him. "No one does."

"Oh, I know," he said. "I just figured that if anyone was smart enough to keep it from happening, it was you."

"I…ah, thank you, Shinji," Ritsuko replied, suddenly looking very intently at the road.

They arrived at the apartment building moments later, and Ritsuko stopped to let Shinji out. They exchanged a brief goodbye, and then they went on their separate ways.

Ritsuko drove just far enough to get out of sight of anyone in the apartment building, parking next to the curb before she turned off the engine. She felt like she needed a moment to regain her composure, choked up as she was by Shinji's words.

"God," she muttered to herself.

_**(Ritsuko? Are you all right?)**_ The scarab asked, both concerned and confused. She didn't seem to be depressed, exactly, but she was clearly very emotional. In fact, she was practically on the verge of tears.

"I'm fine, scarab," she replied, taking a deep, shaky breath. "It's just…that young man has _so_ much faith in me. I don't think anyone's ever believed in me so absolutely. That includes my mother."

_**(I believe in you.)**_

Ritsuko swallowed past a lump in her throat. "You know, you're not making it any easier for me to keep the waterworks from going off," she said with a strangled little laugh.

She just sat in her car for several minutes, resisting the urge to cry. She hated the thought of looking like the stereotypical, hyper-emotional woman, but it was still damn hard to prevent herself from going to pieces.

_**(Ritsuko, there's a call coming in for you on the "blue phone.")**_ The scarab told her just as she was ready to start driving again.

The blonde rolled her eyes at the name the scarab had awarded the phone line she'd given to the JSSDF. There was no actual phone that the number connected to, instead, the scarab itself picked up the call. That was why even the military couldn't trace her.

"Put it though," she said.

Hidden by her hair, something that looked very much like a Bluetooth headset appeared by her right ear.

"Blue Beetle here," she said. "Go ahead."

"Beetle, this is General Katsuro," the now familiar flag officer's voice answered. "The JSSDF has need of your presence tomorrow afternoon. We're going to be doing a public demonstration of the new VTOL attack planes' capabilities, and we want you to be there."

"But tomorrow's the day NERV is supposed to activate Unit Three," Ritsuko protested, holding back a groan.

She had _just_ promised Shinji that she'd do her best to make sure the activation test ran smoothly, which of course meant actually being there in person.

"Exactly," Katsuro said. "I want to take the media's attention away from Matsushiro. The whole point of the demonstration is to steal NERV's thunder."

"I have other things to do that day, General," she said.

"Are you reneging on our deal?" Katsuro demanded, his voice suddenly a good deal colder than it had been a moment ago.

"Of course not," Ritsuko scoffed.

"Part of our agreement was that you'd show up for this sort of thing," Katsuro pointed out. "If you don't come to the photo ops, why should the JSSDF believe that you'll come when it's time to fight the Angels?"

The blonde gritted her teeth. She was being tested, which wasn't exactly a surprise. She had expected that the JSSDF would make her jump through a few hoops in order to gain their trust, at least until she'd killed a few Angels in their name.

Unfortunately, they had picked the worst possible time to throw this at her.

_But what choice do I have?_ She wondered, suppressing a sigh.

"All right, all right," she said. "I'll show."

"Good. The event's at Kyoko-2 and is scheduled to start at 4:30. Be there at 3:30. Katsuro out."

The call ended, and Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "Bastard," she grumbled, finally starting her car again and resuming her trip through the Tokyo-3 streets.

_**(So what are we going to do?)**_ The scarab asked.

"Unfortunately, there's nothing to do but go to Katsuro's stupid bug and pony show," Ritsuko grumbled.

_**(But you told Shinji—)**_

"I know, I know, but there's just no way around it," Ritsuko said miserably. "This is about saving the world here."

_**(What if we sent Holo-Ritsuko to the demonstration instead of to the activation test?)**_ The scarab suggested.

"There's nothing I'd like more," Ritsuko said. "Unfortunately, there's no way we can turn Holo-Ritsuko into Holo-Blue Beetle in under twenty-four hours. _Especially_ not if the JSSDF actually expects us to blow up some dummy targets, which they probably will. You know that as well as I do."

_**(Yeah, I do, but it just doesn't seem right…)**_

"I know, believe me, I'm feeling the same thing you are," Ritsuko said. "But like I said, there's no avoiding it. Fortunately, Unit Three is a production model. It's a lot more stable than our buggy prototype."

_**(Hey!)**_ The scarab said, offended.

"Er, what I meant to say is that it's a lot more stable than our…glitchy prototype," Ritsuko corrected herself. "The odds of anything going wrong with the activation test are practically nil. Everything will be fine."

* * *

Meanwhile, many miles to the east of Japan's shores, one of the largest airplanes ever built by the hands of man flew over the ocean. There was no squadron of escorts nearby, mostly due to the inability of fighter jets to make a nonstop, transcontinental flight.

In truth, most of the Americans would've been pleased if Unit Three plunged to the bottom of the Pacific for some reason. However, the American military had felt obliged to station aircraft carriers at several strategic points along the journey. If anything threatened the transport plane, fighters would arrive in under two minutes.

However, all was calm at the moment. The massive aircraft cut through the air with ease, its important but dangerous cargo safely attached to its underbelly.

A great cloud drifted into their flight path, but the plane didn't change course. There was no need to worry about it concealing a mountain; the plane was far too high in the air for that.

Additionally, the puffy white cloud looked completely unthreatening, like a bit of cotton candy in the air to break up the monotony of the crystal blue sky, not a harbinger of a thunderstorm.

The pilot took the plane into it without a second thought.

Energy crackled within the cloud, and, unbeknownst to the crew of the aircraft, something hitched a ride inside Evangelion Unit Three.

The plane continued its flight toward Japan.

* * *

When Ritsuko had still been in college, she had studied abroad for a semester, spending a few months in California. It had been one of her mother's ideas, and Ritsuko had viewed the whole experience as a waste of time at first.

However, she had quickly come to enjoy her time in the United States. She'd met some fascinating people, had considerably improved her command of the English language, and had let go of many of the stereotypes about Westerners that she had held back then.

Of course, not _every_ new experience had been pleasant. A friend Ritsuko had made there had taken her to an air show, and she had felt that the whole thing was just a loud, pointless, and horribly ostentatious affair.

She had been glad that Japan didn't indulge in such displays.

_Or at least, they didn't indulge in such displays until I showed up,_ she thought glumly, peeking out from behind the stage that had been erected in the middle of Kyoto-2's large stadium. _Now they seem to happen every other week. Good grief, what did I do?_

_**(I don't see what you're so down about. I think these things are awesome!)**_ The scarab commented.

Blue Beetle rolled her eyes. _You would,_ she thought.

"Excuse me, Beetle-san?"

She turned to see a man in a dark suit approaching her. Try as the Blue Beetle might, she couldn't find one thing about him that didn't scream "bureaucratic pencil-neck" at a volume of about ten thousand decibels.

"Yes, what is it?" she asked.

"Ah, I just wanted to make sure you were clear about the plans for the event, ma'am. That you know your cue and everything," he said, casting a nervous glance at his clipboard.

"My cue is the roar of the new VTOLs as they pass overhead. That's rather hard to miss," Blue Beetle remarked.

"Ah, yes, but…"

She was saved from having to endure the man further as the stage began to shake slightly, and the unmistakable noise of an airplane engine drowned out his next words.

"Sorry!" she yelled over the noise. "But I believe that that's my cue!"

Without giving the man a moment to say anything further, Blue Beetle emerged from behind the stage and took off into the air. A pair of enormous screens, each easily larger than the main viewer in the NERV command center, gave a close up view of her to the audience that packed the stadium.

The crowd roared with approval. Blue Beetle smirked.

_I can't believe that people actually still come to these things,_ she thought, even as she continued to gain altitude at an almost dizzying rate of speed. _You'd think this show would get old eventually._

_**(Hey, **_**I'm**_** still enjoying it.)**_

_Yeah…you frighten me a little sometimes,_ Blue Beetle commented.

They reached their target height just as the pilots of the new VTOLs—black and blue craft that incorporated Reach technology—finished a set of maneuvers that showed off the amazing agility of their latest toys.

_Well, you know what to do,_ Blue Beetle told the scarab.

_**(This is the best part!)**_ The scarab said enthusiastically, and the armor covering Blue Beetle's hands and forearms shifted into a pair of guns.

The sapphire superwoman held her arms up, and fantastic flashes of light and bursts of sparks erupted from the guns, gleaming with all colors. It was, Blue Beetle had to admit, a very impressive looking display.

_You know, I __**still**__ can't believe you have a fireworks setting,_ she commented.

_**(This armor has a setting for everything.)**_ The scarab informed her cheerfully. _**(**_**Everything.**_**)**_

_…I'll take your word for it,_ she replied, then began to descend, eventually landing on the stage.

Katsuro was waiting for her there, along with a handful of other JSSDF big wigs. The general was all smiles, but as soon as Blue Beetle's feet touched the stage, he leaned close enough to her to ensure no one else would hear him and said, "Glad to see you could make it."

"Just holding up my end, sir," she replied, resisting the urge to tell the man where he could stick it.

Katsuro then took the podium that had been erected at the center of the stage. The cheering crowd quickly hushed.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the unveiling of the JSSDF's latest aircraft capable of vertical landings and takeoff," Katsuro began. "You know, over the years, some people have questioned the need for such aircraft. When I hear people say that, I say to them…"

_**(And here comes the boring part.)**_ The scarab groaned, and Blue Beetle had to agree.

She knew the drill by now. After the initial display, Katsuro or some other pompous individual would make a long, painfully dull speech. Then she'd be required to say a few words—though it really was just a few, thankfully. The JSSDF had quickly figured out that she had no knack for public speaking.

Then she would blow up some dummy targets, which was hands down the scarab's favorite part. Judging by the old tanks scattered around the field at the center of the stadium, the pattern was going to hold true that day.

Or at least, so it seemed until about halfway through Katsuro's speech. The ground seemed to tremble beneath Blue Beetle's feet, and she knew that she wasn't the only one who'd felt it. Confused murmurs were rippling through the audience, and Katsuro paused, suddenly looking worried.

_Scarab, was that an earthquake?_ She asked.

_**(Negative. I'm not reading any seismographic activity in this region. I don't know what that was.)**_ The scarab answered.

Someone in the audience saw it before anyone on stage did, and soon nearly everyone in the great mass of people was pointing to it and shouting. Blue Beetle turned to look in the direction they indicated, and suddenly she felt sick to her stomach.

A great plume of black smoke was rising in the distance. She didn't think she'd ever seen such an ominous sight in her life.

"That's in the direction of Matsushiro," she told Katsuro. "It could be that an Angel attacked the base or…"

_**(Or that something went catastrophically wrong with the activation test.)**_ The scarab said grimly.

"I'm going to go there, see if I can help," Blue Beetle said.

It had been a statement, not a request for permission, but Katsuro seemed to treat it as such anyway. "Go," he said, looking like he could barely keep a wide grin from appearing on his face. "I'll scramble our newest hardware and have the rest of your taskforce back you up as soon as possible."

Blue Beetle wanted to punch the man. It was just so damn obvious that he was only thinking about how it would look to have the JSSDF save NERV, especially if an Angel was behind whatever had happened. The lives of the innocent people in Matsushiro had never crossed his mind at all.

_**(Ritsuko, let's go!)**_ The scarab urged her.

She nodded and then took to the air, barely bothering to clear the top of the stadium before she activated her jets.

"Damn it," she hissed as she tore through the sky. "I should've kept my promise to Shinji. This is all my fault."

_**(You don't know that yet.)**_ The scarab said. _**(For now, let's just focus on fixing whatever happened, okay?)**_

Blue Beetle nodded. "Agreed."

There were no more words as they flew toward their destination. Both of them put all their effort into getting there as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that was taking much longer than either of them would have liked; the scarab's top speed was far higher than what they were doing, but if they really went at full throttle, they would leave a devastating sonic boom in their wake.

"Are we nearly there yet?" Blue Beetle asked.

_**(Yes!)**_ The scarab replied in irritation. _**(Now stop asking. You're like a kid on a car trip!)**_

Blue Beetle scowled. It was always ironic when the scarab compared _her_ to a child, but this time, she wasn't in the mood for it.

"Whatever," she said. "Can you detect anything of interest?"

_**(Maybe. We might be in sensor range of Matsushiro by now. Let me see…)**_ The scarab paused for a second. A moment later, Blue Beetle could feel her companion's surprise. _**(Oh boy…)**_

"What is it?" the sapphire superwoman demanded.

_**(I'm changing our course.)**_ The scarab announced, and Blue Beetle felt her trajectory shifting slightly. _**(The action's not at Matsushiro anymore. Now it's at Mount Nobe.)**_

Blue Beetle frowned. "What are you…?" she trailed off as what the scarab was talking about came into view.

She was still a good deal away from the battle field, but she could still see it all clearly. That was the good thing about combatants that were seventy meters tall; they were easy to spot, at least.

Evangelion Unit Three was stomping across the countryside, the bloody glow of the setting sun at its back. Standing in its path were Units Zero, One, and Two. All three of the older Evangelions were armed. This was a confrontation if she'd ever seen one.

"Scarab?" she said softly.

_**(All that armor is making it difficult to scan the thing, but I'm definitely picking up a blue pattern inside it, along with a lot of organic matter that doesn't belong.)**_ The scarab said grimly. _**(It's safe to say that Unit Three's been hijacked by an Angel all right.)**_

Blue Beetle swore. If only she'd actually been there, rather than sending her holographic double in her place, the scarab would've picked up the Angel prior to the activation. She could've prevented this.

In other words, this _was_ all her fault.

However, there was no time for self-loathing now.

"Toji?" she asked.

_**(He's alive. I'm picking up his life signs from within the plug. I think he's unconscious, though.)**_ The scarab said.

Hope flared in Blue Beetle's chest. It might still be possible to fix this.

"Then we have to get him out before the other Evangelions tear Unit Three to pieces!" she proclaimed. "Let's go!"

_**(Wait! I'm detecting something else!)**_ The scarab said.

"What is it?" Blue Beetle asked impatiently.

For now, NERV's veteran Evangelions were just holding position as Unit Three advanced toward them, but Blue Beetle knew that wouldn't last for very long. The battle would be joined soon enough, and she really didn't see a way it could end without somebody dying unless she intervened.

_**(I think it's…)**_ Fear swept over the scarab, hitting Blue Beetle like a bucket of cold water to the face. _**(Oh, man…)**_

The sapphire superwoman was about to demand that the scarab tell her what it was picking up. Then her mind made the connection, and she stopped before the words could pass her lips.

There was only one thing that frightened the scarab like that.

"No…" she whispered.

Unit Three came to a stop, and the other three Evangelions suddenly looked hesitant, as though their pilots didn't know how to react.

Then green light flared around the Angel, the black armored form suddenly surrounded by a corona of emerald radiance. The Angel raised one hand, and a beam of jade light suddenly burst forth.

_That_ got the other Evangelions moving, but it was too late for evasive maneuvers. The blast of green light split off into three separate beams, each of which curved in pursuit of a target, looking almost snake-like. The three Evangelions each took a hit right to the chest at almost the same moment.

The sounds of the Children screaming in pain seemed to echo across the landscape somehow. Then NERV's three Evangelions crumpled to the ground, the armor on their torsos badly melted and warped by the attacks they'd endured. Several seconds passed before the fallen Evangelions so much as twitched.

The Angel threw back its head and roared, and Blue Beetle could actually feel the reverberation in her gut. It was like the sound was loud enough to shake Heaven itself.

Parts of the Angel's body bulged grotesquely beneath Unit Three's armor, and several of the black plates abruptly burst off its form, revealing part of the beast's anatomy.

The core was one of the parts that was left exposed, and Blue Beetle could just see something stuck to the ruby sphere. With a thought, she commanded her HUD to zoom in on it, and the thing immediately came into view.

"God, no," she breathed.

It was Misato, or, more accurately, Green Lantern. The jade superwoman was adhered to the core with some sort of light gray goo, looking almost like a fly stuck to a windshield. Her head lulled forward, and her eyes were closed.

Blue Beetle immediately began to deduce what had happened, the pieces easily falling into place inside her mind.

_Misato tried to fight the Angel when it showed itself,_ she thought. Then she rolled her eyes, surprised she'd even felt the need to reason that part out. _Of course she did, she's Misato. But something obviously went very wrong, and the Angel's hijacked her and her power ring just like it hijacked Unit Three._

She shook her head to clear it. Figuring out what exactly had happened could come later; she had to deal with this situation _now_.

"Scarab," she said, "can you get a scan of Shinji, Asuka, and Rei? Are they all right?"

_**(I'm picking up life signs for all three of them, and they're stable. They're unconscious, though.)**_

"Then it looks like it's just us against the Angel," Blue Beetle said grimly.

The scarab made a noise inside her mind which sounded suspiciously like a gulp. _**(An Angel armed with a Green Lantern's light!)**_

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Man, this chapter was difficult to write, mostly because I just couldn't seem to get the pacing right. I can't just follow Ritsuko around the whole time, especially not with the time skips present it this chapter, but there didn't seem to be very many place to "go."

Well, anyway, we at last get to see Ritsuko's grand plan for getting rid of NERV. The whole idea that the superwomen made the Evangelions seem unnecessary and wasteful—and are thus a potential threat to NERV's funding—has been the standard reason for why Gendo wants them dead since _Superwomen of Eva: Spirit_. So I figured it was only right that at least one of these stories delve into that a little more, with getting all of NERV's funding yanked actually being Ritusko's goal. Of course, I know at least a few of you, dear reviewers, figured out that was Rits' objective a long time ago.

On another note, while much of this chapter might've been difficult, I must say I'm very pleased with the bit at the end. If I may be excused for saying so, I think it's one of the better twists I've written for the superwomen stories. Also, I tend to not do so well with crossing the superwomen stories with each other. Orionpax09 is usually much better at it than me, integrating the "guest" superwomen into the story without letting them steal the spotlight from the leading lady. In contrast, I tend more to have another superwoman show up, have a fight with the star of the fic, and then have her super powered alter ego practically disappear. At least here Misato's status as the Green Lantern remains relevant, for now anyway.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta readers as well. Now for some fun!

* * *

Omakes

Seriously Lost

"Are you sure we're still dimension-shifted?" Blue Beetle asked as she traversed the JSSDF base.

_**(Yes. No one can see, hear, or touch us. We're ghosts.)**_ The scarab reassured her.

"Good," Blue Beetle said, "because if I blow the dramatic entrance, we may as well pack up and go home right now."

_**(That would suck.)**_ The scarab said. _**(But don't worry, like I said, we're ghosts. The only thing that could detect us is another—)**_

"Ow!" Blue Beetle exclaimed as she suddenly collided with something solid.

"Ooph!" That 'something' said.

Shaking her head to clear it, Blue Beetle focused on the person she'd just crashed into and did a double take.

"Shinji? Is that you?" she asked.

The boy in front of her did look very much like the Third Child, except he appeared to be…color shifted. His hair was a snowy white while his eyes were an electric green. Instead of his school uniform, or his plug suit, he wore a black and white jumpsuit she wasn't familiar with.

And he was floating about a foot and a half off the floor. That was odd.

"Um, yeah, I'm Shinji Ikiryo," he said, clearly not recognizing the scientist beneath the armor.

"Shinji _Ikiryo_?"

"Yeah," he said, looking around. He sighed. "Crud, I'm in a Superwomen of Eva story, aren't I?"

"Uh, yeah."

The boy's shoulders slumped. "I _knew_ I should've taken a left at Albuquerque…"

* * *

Trouble with Words

_By Ultra Sonic 007_

"Scarab, can you give me a map of this place?" she asked.

_**(Piece of cake.)**_ A cerulean, three-dimensional hologram of the facility appeared in the air before her. _**(…you know, I still don't get that saying.)**_

"Neither do I, now that you mention it," Blue Beetle said absently, studying the map closely.

_**(Speaking of cake, what about that other saying? "You can't have your cake **_**and**_** eat it too.")**_ The scarab made a noise that spoke of confusion. _**(Isn't the point of having a cake to eat it?)**_

"Well, I think that-"

_**(How about "older than dirt"? I can identify several substances on this planet **_**alone**_** that are chronologically older than the soil beneath our feet.)**_

"Well, for that one, I-"

_**(Also, if my knowledge of human anatomy is correct, your lips don't secrete anything resembling sucrose. So why does one say "give me some sugar"?)**_

Ritsuko blinked beneath her helmet. "Um-"

_**(Some don't seem to have any coherent or consistent meaning. "You are what you eat." That implies that eating fruit is equivalent to cannibalism! "The customer is always right." If true, then the very concept of the 'customer service hotline' is a waste of time and resources. "Life begins at FORTY." This phrase contradicts itself! Your species' expressions are so confusing! I mean, how does one 'live off the fat of the land'? Does your planet possess a crust composed of adipose tissue? I think not!)**_

The Blue Beetle couldn't help but sigh at the scarab's frustration (some of it possibly justified) with commonplace vernacular. "Okay, you've made your point."

_**(Hmm…well, there is one colloquialism that has **_**SOME**_** measure of sense.)**_

"Oh?"

_**(Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.)**_

Ritsuko impulsively balked. "**HEY!**"

_**(See? It's true!)**_


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Eight:** The Logical Course of Action

Blue Beetle had been in a number of very bad situations before.

She had been in an emotionally abusive relationship with Gendo Ikari. She had been forced to fight a lobotomized alternate version of herself in the nether realm known as the Bleed. She had battled Angels. She had gone ten rounds with Green Lantern (and lost).

Yet this…this might be the _worst_ situation she'd ever found herself in.

"God," she breathed in a tiny, horrified voice.

The Thirteenth Angel had stolen control of Evangelion Unit Three, and even worse, it had somehow hijacked Green Lantern in the process. Now she faced a monster that had a power ring at its disposal and was holding both the newly minted Fourth Child and her friend hostage.

_I should have been there,_ she thought as she hovered in the air, silently gaping at the Angel, as well as the trio of Evangelions it had easily incapacitated with a blast of Green Lantern's power. _None of this would've happened if I'd just had the guts to reject Katsuro's demand that I show up for another stupid demonstration today._

She no doubt that if she'd gone to Matsushiro, rather than sending her holographic double in her place, the scarab would have detected the Angel waiting to strike. This whole disaster could've been brought to an end before it had begun.

_**(Oh, for crying out loud!)**_ The scarab exclaimed, obviously exasperated. _**(This isn't over yet! Angst later! Fight now!)**_

"But both Misato and Toji are plugged into that thing," she protested. "If I hurt it, I might hurt _them_, too."

_**(And it's better to just float here and do nothing?)**_ The scarab demanded. _**(We have to take the chance, Ritsuko!)**_

Blue Beetle balled her hands into fists, loathing the very thought of it…but unable to come up with any alternative. Much as she hated it, the logic was clear.

"All right," she said. "Let's do it."

The armor covering her right hand and forearm rapidly began to shift around, forming a now familiar energy weapon.

_**(Annihilator Beam ready.)**_ The scarab reported, and for once, it didn't sound gleeful at the prospect of shooting something.

Which was a good thing, because if it had, Blue Beetle definitely would've snapped at it.

"Fire," she ordered, her voice a whisper.

The scarab heard. A beam of electric blue light erupted from the barrel of her weapon, striking Unit Three in the very center of its chest. The possessed Evangelion staggered backwards, letting out a thunderous roar of pain. A large section of Unit Three's armor instantly melted, then vaporized, revealing a section of blackened flesh beneath.

Blue Beetle noticed _none_ of it; all of her attention was focused upon the individual stuck to the Angel's core. Green Lantern—_Misato_—was writhing and screaming in agony, even though she remained unconscious.

_Hurting the Angel hurts her, too!_ She thought, feeling horror grip her heart. _Toji's probably in pain, as well._

_**(RITSUKO!)**_ The scarab screamed. _**(Look out!)**_

Her gaze snapped up just in time to see that her attack had apparently pissed the Angel off. A lot.

A beam of emerald light burst forth from the possessed Evangelion's fingertip, and Blue Beetle felt her stomach clench. The memory of the beating she'd taken the last time she'd faced someone armed with that kind of power was still fairly fresh in her mind.

Fortunately, the scarab was quicker on the draw than she was. Realizing that she was frozen with fear, it seized control, causing both of them to dive sharply. The sensation was so disorienting that she almost wasn't grateful to the scarab.

Almost. The beam the Angel had fired at her, which was about as thick as the trunk of a two hundred year old oak tree, slammed into Mount Nobe.

Struck with that much raw power, the mountain simply _shattered_. Thousands of enormous boulders, which had been a single piece mere moments ago, tumbled to ground like rain. Dust billowed out in all directions, sweeping out across the landscape like a tidal wave, and the Earth shook.

It was perhaps the most awesome and terrible display of raw might that the Blue Beetle had ever seen.

_My God,_ she thought. _I…tried to fight someone with that power. I __**am**__ fighting something with that power!_

_**(We could level mountains, too. If we wanted to.)**_ The scarab said in a soft, dangerous voice.

Blue Beetle didn't doubt that it was telling the truth, but she had no desire for a demonstration.

Not that they had time for one. The Angel fired another blast of green death at her, and this time, Blue Beetle was the one who took them out of harm's way. The energy beam crashed into the ground, punching a hole into the earth and setting off another series of tremors while the azure superwoman headed toward the a nearby forest.

_**(What are you doing?)**_ The scarab asked.

"Trying to catch my breath," she replied as her feet touched terra firma, "and hoping that the cover from the trees and all the dust from Mount Nobe breaking will hide me until I figure out what to do next."

_**(What's to figure out?)**_ The scarab demanded. _**(There's a giant monster armed with a Green Lantern power ring over there! We either run away, or we try to kill it!)**_

"But—"

_**(Look out!)**_

Blue Beetle's gaze snapped up just in time for her to see the Angel's fist barreling toward her at an alarming rate of speed. The superwoman in the azure armor let out a loud squawk of fear before she surged back into the air, only barely getting out of the way in time. The Angel's fist crashed into the ground, leaving and large crater in the earth and reducing several unlucky trees to pulp.

"Wow," Blue Beetle said as she looked at the Angel.

_**(Yeah.)**_ The scarab agreed. _**(Could that EVA always do that?)**_

"No," the sapphire superwoman answered.

Unit Three's fist and its torso were currently almost a solid kilometer apart, its arm having stretched out like rubber so it could try and smash her. It would've looked ridiculous if it didn't represent one more thing she had to worry about.

The possessed Evangelion's arm snapped back to its original length, and it swung at her, its limb elongating out once more. Its aim was good, and Blue Beetle had to quickly gain altitude to avoid the swing. Then, even before it had fully completed its first attack, it unleashed another blast of emerald energy at her. Blue Beetle barely managed to dodge.

"Okay," Blue Beetle said to herself, "first priority: get my best friend and her damn power ring away from that Angel!"

Nimbly weaving through the storm of attacks, Blue Beetle headed right for the Angel's core, which Green Lantern was stuck to with some grey goop. Hoping that extracting her fellow superwoman wouldn't take long, she reached out…

Only to have her hand blocked as a box of emerald light formed around Green Lantern.

"No!" she cried out in frustration.

With a growl, she punched at the jade container, only to have pain shoot through her fist and up her arm. A scowl forming on her face, Blue Beetle commanded the armor on her forearm to transform into a long blade with a wicked point and then stabbed at the construct. The time, she made a mark, actually penetrating the box of solid light a few centimeters and creating several cracks in the ring construct.

_**(Ritsuko…)**_

"Not now," she grumbled, determined to liberate the Green Lantern.

_**(Yes now!)**_ The scarab exclaimed, seizing control and propelling them far away from the Angel's core.

It was none too soon, either. The Angel swiped at them with its massive hand, like a person trying to swat at a mosquito. Blue Beetle would've been killed if the blow had connected.

"Thanks," she told the scarab, though without much enthusiasm.

The emerald container around Misato disappeared as she got further away from it, Blue Beetle noted, but she had no doubt that it would be back the moment she got close enough to actually pull her friend free.

_**(You can thank me after we get out of the battle alive!)**_ The scarab said, as the Angel unleashed a storm of green energy bolts, which they were only barely able to avoid.

"Hey is it just me, or is the Angel not very good with that ring?" she asked, even as she had to fly a crazy path through the air to avoid the flurry of punches and green bolts of light.

_**(You call this not very good?)**_ The scarab demanded. _**(With all these maneuvers we're doing, I can't tell up from down, and we're still barely staying alive here!)**_

"No, I mean, aside from that box it made around Misato, it's just…shooting at us," she said. "When we fought Misato, she was making solid holograms, and…throwing rocks at us and stuff."

_**(Hmm.)**_ The scarab sounded thoughtful. _**(It takes a lot of willpower and creativity to use power rings effectively. By the looks of it, I'd say the Angel has the willpower but not the creativity. Which I guess is good for us.)**_

Yes, that definitely sounded right, Blue Beetle decided. As an offspring of the Seed of Life rather than the Seed of Knowledge, the Angel _would_ lack imagination.

"Now I just have to figure out how to use that to my advantage," she mused aloud, even as she performed an insane corkscrew maneuver to keep from getting turned to paste.

_**(Are you nuts?)**_ The scarab snapped. _**(We're barely surviving here! We need to go on an all out offensive! Not look for some magic button that'll make the Angel let its hostages go!)**_

"Damn it, scarab, I—"

She was cut off by something that sounded quite a lot like a cell phone ring tone.

"What is that?" she snapped.

_**(General Katsuro's calling us.)**_ The scarab answered. _**(I'm patching him through now.)**_ It added before she could protest.

"Blue, it's me," the voice of the general came into her ear. "Katsuro."

"Yes, I know," she replied, even as she did a midair back flip to avoid a particularly vicious swing. "I'm a little busy here, though, General."

"I figured," he replied. "I just wanted to let you know that your reinforcements should be arriving in under one minute. I've ordered the pilots of the Bugs to obey your commands."

"Right," she said, "thank you, sir."

"Also, you _cannot_ allow this Angel to reach Tokyo-3," he added. "I don't care _what_ you need to do, but keep it away from that city. The reputation and honor of the JSSDF are depending on you."

_Go to hell, you prick,_ was what Blue Beetle wanted to say.

The scarab picked up on the thought and giggled childishly inside her head.

"I understand, sir," was what Blue Beetle actually said. "Over and out." She closed the connection.

_**(Perfect.)**_ The scarab said. _**(When the VTOLs get here, we can all bombard the Angel together and kill it.)**_

"What?" Blue Beetle exclaimed. "But Misato and Suzuhara…!"

_**(Ritsuko! Be realistic about this! We have to kill it!)**_ The scarab insisted.

"But—!"

_**(No buts! We're barely staying alive here, and if we keep playing with the Angel, then we'll be putting the VTOL pilots in danger, too.)**_ The scarab pointed out. _**(An all out attack is the only logical course of action!)**_

Almost as if on cue, the squadron of new VTOL attack planes burst onto the scene, the roar of their engines heralding their arrival. It wasn't long before she heard the voice of the squadron leader in her ear.

"Blue Lady, this Swarm Leader. Waiting for your orders, over."

The sapphire superwoman's higher brain functions seemed to freeze, even as she continued to frantically dodge the Angel's attacks, and the awful moment of decision stretched out into near infinity.

The scarab was right in saying that attempting to kill the Angel now was the _logical_ course of action, even though doing so would probably kill its hostages as well. Misato and Suzuhara were two people, while the Angel was a threat to the entire world.

Of course, if she wanted to do things simply by the numbers, then her quest to prevent Third Impact should have led her to destroying NERV headquarters and the two extremely dangerous Seeds of Life contained within a long time. Killing the paltry hundreds of innocent people inside the base at any given time in order to prevent the extinction of mankind was clearly the _logical_ thing to do.

And when her alternate self from another dimension, the Scarlet Scarab, had allowed herself to die while destroying the Twelfth Angel's core, she supposed that, too, had been the _logical_ thing to do, considering what had happened to her.

"Blue Lady, do you copy?" the squadron leader asked her.

_**Fuck**__ the logical course of action,_ she decided.

"I copy, Swarm Leader," Blue Beetle replied. "You and your men are going to be distractions for now. Just shoot at the Angel enough to piss it off and get its attention off me. And _keep your distance._ This damn thing is fast and deadly."

"Acknowledged, Blue Lady." The squadron leader said.

_**(Ritsuko…)**_

"I know, scarab," she said, "but I can't just write Misato and Suzuhara off like that. I _can't."_

The scarab paused for a moment before responding. _**(Well then, I guess that's all there is to it.)**_

Blue Beetle had to swallow past the lump in her throat. "Thank you."

The VTOLs wasted no time in carrying out their orders, fanning out around the Angel and opened fire. Unlike the storm of missiles and bullets that their older siblings would have unleashed, however, these newer plane let loose with energy weapons.

Even the new high tech weapons didn't have the raw power to penetrate the Angel's AT field by themselves, though, but they didn't need to. The possessed Evangelion roared in outrage a dozen beams of electric blue energy struck it from all angles. It lashed out at the planes with both stretchy limbs and Green Lantern energy, but the JSSDF was only giving the new model VTOLs to the most elite pilots. They expertly dodged the attacks, using maneuvers that didn't even seem physically possible. They wouldn't have been, without the Reach technology incorporated into the crafts.

Even so, Blue Beetle couldn't help but notice just how perilously close some of the Angel's attacks came. Clearly, she needed to rescue the Angel's hostages as quickly as possible.

_Okay, first, Misato,_ she thought, and again flew toward her friend.

She wasn't surprised when the walls of jade light once more materialized around her friend. Blue Beetle instantly transformed the armor over her hand into the buzz saw she'd used when she'd fought Misato and began to hack away at Green Lantern's cage.

Unfortunately, trying to take the Angel's new toy away instantly got its attention. It ignored the squadron of fighters and tried to swipe at her again, forcing her to back off before it turned its efforts back to the planes.

"Damn," she cursed, "if only there was a way I could get past that stupid green…"

She trailed off, suddenly unable to believe just how stupid she'd been.

_**(What?)**_ The scarab asked.

"Bring up our protective field, scarab," she said, "and give it that yellow tint again."

_**(Oh.)**_ It said. _**(Duh.)**_

Golden light flared around the Blue Beetle's form, and she surged forward toward her friend once more. Misato's emerald cage reappeared for a third time, but now the sapphire superwoman reached through it as though it wasn't there, easily grabbing hold of Green Lantern's arms.

"C'mon…" Blue Beetle grunted as she pulled with all her strength.

_**(Ritsuko! It's trying to hit us again!)**_ The scarab warned her.

"I know, but I have to save her!" Blue Beetle said.

The gray ooze holding Green Lantern to the Angel's core was proving extremely resilient; it was stretching out a bit as Blue Beetle pulled, almost like rubber, but so far it was refusing to break.

The Angel swiped at them once more, and the scarab let out a shrill, wordless cry. With a thought, it caused the armor to shift; jets sprouted on the bottom of Blue Beetle's boots and ignited. The woman in the azure armor released a loud cry as she was suddenly rocketed away from the Angel, pulling Green Lantern with her.

For several, terrifying seconds, Blue Beetle's world was chaos. She had no idea which way was up or down, where the Angel was, or where…_anything_ else was in relation to her. All she knew was that she was careening crazily through the air, gripping onto her unconscious friend as hard as she could.

Finally, they crashed into the ground, bouncing multiple times across several meters before they came to a stop.

"You know…that actually didn't hurt as much as I thought it would," Blue Beetle remarked to no in particular.

Green Lantern groaned softly, and the sapphire superwoman realized just then that she'd landed on her back, and her friend's body was splayed out on top of hers.

"Ugh," Green Lantern's eyes fluttered opened. "Rits?"

"Good morning, Misato," she greeted her friend. "You know, you're cute, but I need to drink way more alcohol before I start batting for the other team."

"Wha?" Green Lantern asked, frowning in confusion. Then she realized the position they were in and quickly got off of Blue Beetle. "Oh, God! Sorry, Rits! What…what _happened?_"

As quickly as she could, Blue Beetle gave her friend the short version. "And that thing's still got Toji," she finished. "Can you help me get him out? Are you up for it?"

"Let's see," she said. "Ring, power check."

_"Power levels at four percent,"_ her ring answered her.

"Four percent?" Green Lantern scowled. "I had a full charge just this morning!"

"Yeah, the Angel's been using your powers liberally," Blue Beetle said, glancing up at the VTOL squadron. They were all still all right at the moment, but it was just a matter of time before the Angel swatted one out of the sky. She needed to get back into the battle, fast. "Is that enough for you to get Toji if I keep the Angel distracted?"

"Only one way to find out, right?" Green Lantern, balling her hand into a fist.

A halo of emerald light surrounded the jade superwoman's body, and she took off into the air toward the Angel. Blue Beetle was barely able to keep up.

"Geeze, her courage is going to get her killed one of these days," she grumbled.

_**(You know, now that we've gotten past this "Green Lanterns and the Reach are natural enemies" thing, I'm really starting to like her.)**_ The scarab commented cheerfully.

"You would," she muttered. "Okay, scarab, we need to keep the Angel's attention completely on us and the fighters so Misato can do her thing, but I don't want to try and kill it until we get Toji out of it."

_**(I know just the thing.)**_ The scarab said, and Blue Beetle knew that it would've been grinning if it had a face.

Before she could demand to know what exactly it had in mind, the armor covering her forearms again, this time forming a pair of very familiar guns. Cackling wildly, the scarab fired off the firework cannons she'd been using less than an hour ago at the JSSDF's show. Spectacular bursts of smoke and colored sparks erupted from the guns, striking the possessed Evangelion right in the eye. The light and noise both blinded and infuriated the Angel, but it did no actual harm to the beast.

"You know, scarab," she commented, even as she dodged the Angel's flailing arms while making sure to keep irritating its eyes, "you do have a talent for coming up with crazy ideas. Hell, you might even rival Misato in that regard."

_**(I will take that as a compliment, **__**regardless**__** of the spirit that was given in.)**_ The scarab responded cheerily.

Blue Beetle would've rolled her eyes if she could've taken them off the Angel without being swatted out of the sky. "Let's just hope that Misato's doing her part all right."

* * *

Consciousness did not return to quickly to Toji Suzuhara.

Instead, he returned to the waking world by degrees. Where before all had been silent blackness, he slowly became aware of light beyond his closed eyelids and sounds he couldn't identify coming from all around him. Not long after that, his brain tentatively formed its first coherent thought since the activation test's abrupt and disastrous conclusion.

_What happened? Am I dead?_ He wondered.

Slowly, he opened his eyes. The light immediately caused him to squint, but he forced himself to tolerate it until his eyes started to adjust. He really wanted to know whether he was dead or not; it seemed like a very important matter for some reason.

Finally, his vision cleared up enough for him to make out shapes and colors. The first thing he saw was a very feminine silhouette, accompanied, for some reason, by quite a lot of green light.

_Whoa, I __**am**__ dead,_ he thought, jumping to conclusions as he took in the mystery woman's very impressive figure. _Awesome! Heaven's way cooler than I expected it to be!_

Then she reached forward, one gloved hand hitting his cheek with something between a pat and a slap. "Kid, kid, wake up! C'mon please, be oak!"

This was most definitely _not_ what he'd expect an insanely hot angel (the good kind) to say and do when welcoming him into paradise, and Toji's subsequent surprise woke up him a bit more.

Finally, his blurry vision cleared enough for him to actually identify the woman standing before him.

"Green Lantern?" he asked.

Or least, that's what he tried to say. What really came out of his mouth was a sort of gurgling croak. Nevertheless, Green Lantern clearly heard it and was encouraged by the sign of life from him.

"Don't worry, kid! I'll get you out of there!" she exclaimed.

The emerald superwoman pointed her ring downwards, shooting a beam out of it. For a second, Toji thought she was aiming at him, and he tensed up in fear. However, he soon realized that she instead directing her fire at the grayish goo _around_ him.

_What…what is this stuff?_ He wondered, looking at the substance with disgust. The entry plug seemed to be half filled with it, and the ooze was keeping the jock firmly adhered to his seat.

Fortunately, the stuff did _not_ seem to like the light that Green Lantern was shooting at it. The fungus-like material appeared to actually recoil from the beam that was coming from her ring, and within seconds, most of it had retreated away from his form.

"Okay," Green Lantern said, "let's get you out of here."

She grabbed him by the waist and began to pull, but Toji could feel that he still had some of that gray ooze on his back holding him in place. He tried to tell her, but he couldn't quite find the energy to form more than a few incoherent sounds.

The jade superwoman tugged harder. At first, nothing happened. Then, the revolting glue that was keeping Toji in place finally lost its grip, and he flew forwards. For a split second, terror gripped his heart as he feared that he'd go tumbling down the length of his EVA, then go splat on the ground.

However, that didn't exactly happen.

_Oh, right, Green Lantern can fly. Duh,_ he thought as she began to descend toward the ground, carrying him along with her.

He frowned; being in the emerald superwoman's arms wasn't exactly unpleasant, but he disliked being carried around like a baby. The jock struggled slightly, trying to change positions. However, while his strength had started to rapidly return the moment Green Lantern got him out of his EVA, he still couldn't do more than squirm weakly in her arms.

"Don't worry," she told him, misinterpreting his efforts, "we're almost—"

_"Warning,_" a flat voice that Toji realized was coming from her ring spoke up, _"power levels approaching 0.00 percent."_

"Uh-oh," Green Lantern said.

A second later, the superwoman's emerald aura began to flicker like an old fluorescent bulb, and her flight through the air became jerky. There were several seconds at a time where they seemed to be in free fall rather than a controlled descent. Toji was unpleasantly reminded of riding in a car with a sputtering, failing motor.

Finally, her flying ability gave out entirely, and they went plummeting toward the earth. Toji screamed as they went down. Green Lantern didn't.

"Ooph!" the luminescent superwoman grunted as they hit the ground, which hadn't been too far below them by the time her ring finally gave out.

She attempted to tuck and roll as they landed, but the teenage boy in her arms complicated matters. For a moment, Toji's world flipped flopped around crazily, before they landed, sprawled out in the dirt in an awkward tangle of arms and legs.

Under any other circumstances, the jock would have seriously considered taking advantage of the confusion and copping a feel. With things the way they were, though, he just lay there as Green Lantern hastily extricated herself from him.

"You okay?" she asked him, getting to her feet and offering him a hand.

"Yeah," he answered, allowing her to help him get to his feet. He stood on still wobbly legs. "What happened?"

"My ring ran out of juice," she answered, looking down at the object in question and scowling.

"Can't you, uh, refuel it?" he asked.

"Not here," she replied, "I have to go home in order to recharge. It looks like this battle is all R…Blue Beetle's."

* * *

_**(Ritsuko! They're clear!)**_

"You sure?" She asked, not quite willing to let up on her distraction tactics quite yet.

_**(Yes, I'm sure!)**_ The scarab replied, sounding annoyed. _**(Geeze, I could tell you where that Chinese food delivery guy you met is right now, and you have to ask me if I'm sure Misato and Toji are clear?)**_

"Okay, okay, sorry," she replied contritely, finally ceasing the never ending flood of fireworks. Finally able to see again, the Angel took a swing at her, but she nimbly got out of its way. "Connect me to the leader of the VTOL squadron."

_**(Done.)**_

"Swarm Leader, this is Blue Lady, are you hearing me?" she asked, even as she performed a midair somersault to avoid to enraged Angel.

"I copy, Blue Lady," he answered at once.

"Good. Unit Three's pilot is clear, so now the mission is to kill the thing," she told him, thinking that if the Angel survived for another ten seconds, it would be far too long.

"Swarm Leader acknowledges," he said and cut the channel.

The new VTOLs immediately ceased in their harassment tactics, cranking their energy weapons to full power (Blue Beetle could easily see that the beams suddenly became brighter and more intense), and shooting far more rapidly.

The Angel's response was…not what she expected, to put it mildly.

Rather than trying more of the trashing it had been employing as its sole means of trying to swat the annoying bugs, the possessed Evangelion opened its mouth wide and appeared to vomit up large gobs of the gray ooze that had invaded the entry plug.

_**(Ew.)**_ The scarab commented.

"Yeah," Blue Beetle agreed.

The VTOLs quickly took evasive action, but the stuff moved as though it was alive, arcing back toward them and catching the pilots completely by surprise. Every last plane in the squadron received a splatter of the gray stuff directly to the hull.

At first, the results of the bizarre attack appeared to be quite limited. The fighters all veered off course as the goop struck them, but they very quickly regained their stability.

"Swarm Leader, are you all right?" she asked.

"We're fine, just a little shaken up," the man replied. "Now, I—what the hell?"

"What?" she demanded. "What's wrong?"

"My controls aren't responding!" the pilot responded, sounding more frantic with every second. "Whatever's flying this thing, it isn't me!"

As one, all the VTOLs turned, their guns pointing directly at Blue Beetle.

_**(Ritsuko, I think—)**_ The scarab began.

"Yes, I know," she sighed, just as the VTOLs all opened fire.

She commanded the wings that had sprouted from the back of her armor to stop flapping, and she immediately plunged like a stone as result. The deadly crossfire from the squadron missed her entirely.

"Swarm Leader, you and your men have to bail out!" she ordered.

"_Way_ ahead of you, Blue Leader," the squadron leader informed her.

A second later, the canopies were blasted off the tops of all twelve VTOLs as the pilots ejected, their parachutes opening as they made it out into the open air. Mercifully, neither the possessed aircraft nor the Angel itself showed any interest in them.

Once the aviators had gotten a safe distance away from their craft, Blue Beetle decided it was time to act. Transforming the armor covering her hand and forearm into an energy weapon, she took aim and the closest one and mentally commanded it to fire.

Nothing happened. The VTOLs quickly began lining up to take another shot at her.

"Scarab, what's wrong?" she demanded frantically. "Why can't we shoot them?"

_**(They have Reach tech integrated into their systems! I'm reading them as friendly! I can't make myself do it!)**_ It answered, sounding both panicked and miserable at once.

"But they're not friendly, and they're not even real Reach units," Blue Beetle protested.

_**(I know, but I STILL can't make myself shoot them! It's like an instinct that's been hard coded into my brain!)**_ The scarab exclaimed.

Thanks to her direct connection with the scarab's mind, Blue Beetle knew it was telling the truth. She could easily feel its frustration as it struggled to overcome the mental block and failed, unable to surmount the appalled emotions it experienced whenever it even _thought_ about killing the VTOLs.

Instantly, the scientist's brain kicked into overdrive as she analyzed her current predicament. She had managed to evade the Angel so far, if only with a great effort, but that was only because she was so much smaller and quicker than it was. There obviously wasn't such a great size disparity between herself and the VTOLs, and while she was more agile than they were, there were twelve of them.

_Okay, so I can't shoot back at the squadron of planes that are trying to kill me,_ she thought. _If I take out the Angel, that'll probably stop the planes, but how am I supposed to do that with them harassing me the whole time?_

There was no doubt about it: she was in a real catch-22. If she didn't figure out a way out of it, she was going to die.

_Okay,_ she thought desperately. _What would Misato do?_

The idea that instantly occurred to her was simultaneously so brilliant and so crazy that Blue Beetle just knew it was _exactly_ what her friend would've done.

"Scarab, you work on getting our guns to fire on these things," she ordered. "Leave everything else to me."

_**(Everything? All right.)**_ It agreed, though it didn't even bother to mask the skepticism in its mental voice.

Blue Beetle didn't have time to get insulted. She took off like a shot just as the VTOLs unleashed another volley at her, and by some miracle, she managed to weave through all the blue energy beams without one of them striking her. After emerging from the firestorm, she headed directly for the nearest VTOL, and, making sure to keep out of the path of its guns as she approached, perched herself right on top of the thing.

She could sense how incredulous the scarab was at her course of action, but it kept quiet, focusing on the job she had given it.

The VTOL that Blue Beetle had landed on immediately began to turn right and then left as rapidly as its maneuvering thrusters would allow it to, trying to shake her off. However, with a thought, her boots became magnetic, allowing her to hold fast to her position. Silently, she marveled at the seemingly endless number of functions her armor was capable of performing.

Out loud, she called to the other VTOLs. "Hey! Over here, guys! Target standing right in plain sight!"

The resulting reaction from the eleven fighters she wasn't standing on was predictable. They all pivoted in midair to bring their guns to bear on her and fired.

Instantly, Blue Beetle disengaged the magnets and flew into the sky, leaving the hapless VTOL she was standing on to be torn to ribbons by its brothers.

_**(Score! Two points!)**_ The scarab cheered as the VTOL turned into a fireball beneath them.

"Keep your mind on the job," she ordered it tersely.

_**(Right.)**_ The scarab agreed.

Blue Beetle headed to another one of the fighters and repeated the trick she'd used on the first one. Then she went to another fighter and did it again. She kept right on doing it until there was only one left.

"Can we shoot at it yet?" she asked.

_**(Yes, I think so.)**_ The scarab answered, but it sounded uncertain. She could still sense its reluctance to fire on anything that so much as smelled like the Reach.

Nevertheless, she formed the energy weapon, took aim, and fired. This time, a beam of blue light erupted forth, spearing straight through the last of the VTOLs. The craft instantly began to careen toward the ground in an uncontrolled fall, the hole she had just made in it belching black smoke.

"Okay, now that _that_'s out of the way, can we _finally_ get to the main event here?" she asked. "I feel like this fight's been going on for a week!"

_**(With pleasure.)**_ The scarab said, clearly having _no_ reservations about attacking the Angel.

"Remember, we need to use a weapon that _won't_ destroy the world," she told it.

_**(Oh…right.)**_ It said.

Suddenly, her wrists came together as though they were magnetized to one another. Before Blue Beetle could say anything, a massive weapon covering both of her hands and forearms grew from her armor. It was almost as big as she was.

_Damn, where does the scarab keep all this extra mass? The Bleed?_ She wondered.

If the scarab overheard the thought, it didn't bother answering her. _**(Can I do it, Ritsuko? Can I?)**_ It asked giddily, sounding even more child-like than usual.

Appropriately enough, she heaved a sigh like a long suffering matron before answering. "Go ahead."

_**(Sweet!)**_

The scarab fired the weapon, and Blue Beetle had to lower the brightness settings on her HUD to avoid being blinded by the resulting _column_ of blue-white light that burst forth from it. The beam widened the further it got away from the sapphire superwoman, eventually crashing head on into the possessed Evangelion's AT field. The barrier of orange light managed to hold for a few seconds, but it wasn't long before it buckled beneath the force of the onslaught.

Then the Angel was engulfed from the waist up in the energy beam that Blue Beetle had fired off, and for several seconds, it remained that way.

Finally, the sapphire superwoman's attack petered out. Despite the adjustments she'd made to her HUD, she had to blink away spots once it was over. Regardless, she could see what had become of the Angel well enough to make her jaw drop.

The parts of it that had been subjected to her attack had been vaporized. Nothing was left of Unit Three besides a giant pair of legs.

"Whoa," she said.

_**(Awesome.)**_

For several seconds, Blue Beetle just hovered in the air, staring at the destruction she and the scarab had wrought. Then she abruptly snapped back to reality.

"Oh, geeze, I have to get Misato back to Matsushiro before anyone notices she's gone!" she exclaimed, heading for the ground. "Hell, I have to get to Matsushiro before anyone notices _I'm_ gone. There's no way holo-Ritsuko's projector didn't get damaged by the explosion."

_**(Hey, Ritsuko?)**_ The scarab spoke up, and it sounded far more tentative than it usually did when it wasn't facing one of the extremely few things it was afraid of.

"Yes?" she asked.

_**(I…I'm sorry about telling you to just try and kill the Angel. That was the wrong decision.)**_ It said softly.

"Oh, scarab," she began, not quite sure how to reassure the being she was sharing her body with. She had never been very good at that sort of thing. "I was right in hindsight, and hindsight's always 20/20."

She could feel the scarab scanning her brain for the meaning of the idiom she'd just used before responding. _**(Yeah, but if you'd done what I said, you almost certainly would've killed Misato and Toji.)**_

"Yes, and in trying to save them, I pretty much risked _everything,_" Blue Beetle countered. "You had a valid argument, scarab. I think the fact that you're a weapon might've colored your judgment, but that doesn't change the fact that me just attacking the Angel would have been the logical course of action. I just couldn't bring myself to do the logical thing, though. Not when it meant killing my best friend and that poor boy."

_**(So…you're not angry at me?)**_ It asked.

She shook her head. "Not a bit," she said. "Now come on, we really do have to double time it to Matsushiro."

* * *

Hours later found Slade Wilson sitting inside a suite in one of Tokyo-3's hotels. His remaining good eye was trained on the television, unblinking.

"Good evening, I'm Hondo Akie," the journalist on the screen spoke, "and behind me is all that remains Hyogo-2."

The camera panned out, showing the small village behind her. Or, more accurately, what remained of the small village behind her. The place looked like a giant had trampled over it, and the little wooden houses there were now good for little more than kindling.

"This is the area where the most recent 'Angel' battle took place earlier today," Akie said, "and while great devastation resulting from these conflicts is far from out of the ordinary, this battle was still unique from all the rest."

The station switched cameras, showing an aerial view of an area next to the shattered village. Three huge, roughly human-shaped imprints had been formed in the ground.

"According to eyewitnesses who saw the start of the battle, NERV's Evangelions were almost immediately disabled by the Angel. Details remain sketchy at this time, but it appears that the members of the JSSDF's new anti-Angel taskforce were the ones who won this victory," Akie said.

One of the assassin's associate's entered the room just then. "Slade…"

"Shh," the man hissed, eyes still glued to the screen.

"NERV has declined to comment on the battle at this time," Akie said, "and Channel 2 News has not yet been able to reach JSSDF high command. While it remains largely unclear what, if any, implications this will have for Japan's defenses against the Angels, the UN General Assembly has already scheduled a vote on whether to transfer the remainder of NERV's auxiliary budget to the JSSDF.

"Additionally, according to one of our sources, the Security Council has announced plans to consider transferring a portion of NERV's _main_ budget to the JSSDF," Akie continued. "Channel 2 News will, of course, bring these developments to you as come."

Slade switched the television off but continued to gaze silently at the blank screen for several seconds, deep in thought. Eventually, his associate cleared her throat, getting his attention.

"What does this mean?" she asked.

He smiled, finally turning to her. "It means that this job is definitely going to be interesting."

* * *

The next day found Misato and Ritsuko seated side by side on one of the benches by the Geofront lake, both with a bento box on their laps. Unlike the last time they'd had lunch together, the atmosphere was less than hostile, though definitely still uncomfortable.

"So," Misato began awkwardly, after the two had spent several minutes eating in silence.

"So," Ritsuko replied.

The Ops Director sighed. "I guess I owe you a big thank you," she said. "You saved all four of the pilots, and me, of course."

Ritsuko smiled slightly. "I was more than happy to do it," she said. "But please, don't go getting kidnapped by an Angel again. That thing was scary enough without your power ring at its disposal."

Misato grimaced. "Believe me, I don't plan on it," she said.

She didn't even remember what had happened after the Angel had made his presence known; there was a blank spot in her memory from then until Ritsuko had managed to free her. Nevertheless, just the knowledge that an Angel had taken control of her like that, had used _her_ power against the Children…she didn't think she'd ever felt so violated.

"Good," was all Ritsuko said in response.

"So, you're still not going to tell me why you decided to join the JSSDF, are you?" Misato asked.

Ritsuko shook her head. "No, Misato. I'm sorry, but I can't do that."

"Even though you've put NERV's funding in serious danger?" the Ops Director pressed.

"That's right," Ritsuko replied.

Misato sighed. "Okay."

The scientist blinked. "That's it?" she asked.

The Ops Director nodded. "Yeah, that's it," she said. "I have no idea why you're doing what you're doing, but I trust you. You have saved the Children twice already, and you are my friend, after all."

Ritsuko felt a lump forming in her throat. "Thanks," she said.

"You'll call me, right? If you get in over your head, I mean," Misato added. "Remember, my ring does pack a nasty punch."

"After seeing what it did to Mount Nobe, I'll never forget it," Ritsuko said.

"So, you will ask Green Lantern for help if you ever really need it, right?" the Ops Director pressed.

"Of course," Ritsuko said, even though she had no intention of ever getting her friend involved with her plan, no matter what.

The silence returned, but it was more comfortable this time. Finally, just as they were finishing up, the scientist spoke up again.

"So, how are the Children, anyway?" she asked.

"All pretty shaken up, but mostly fine," Misato answered, then smiled tiredly. "Asuka's so angry at our alter egos that she's about ready to start breathing fire. The way she figures it, she could've beaten the Angel if it hadn't nabbed me, and she's not too happy that you waltzed in and grabbed all the glory. I think she half-believes we conspired against her."

"It figures," Ritsuko groaned.

"By the way, that was good of you to remove Toji from the pilot roster," Misato commented.

Ritsuko shrugged. "I might have done that anyway. He was exposed to a lot of Angelic matter, after all, and it's not like he's of much use to NERV, now that Unit Three's been destroyed," she said. "Besides, I figured he's been through enough. The way we recruited him never sat right with me, and I can't imagine the sort of trauma he endured from this whole experience."

* * *

"Oh my God, she was _so_ hot!" Toji crowed.

Shinji and Kensuke exchanged weary looks across the school lunch table. The jock had spoken of little more than the Green Lantern ever since the battle, and even though that had only been yesterday, they were both already getting sick of hearing this story.

Ignoring his friends' expressions, Toji eagerly continued with his tale. "So I wake up, right? And the first thing I see is Green Lantern. She's like Misato-level hot," he traced a very curvy silhouette in the air with his hands, "but she's in this _really_ tight costume. It was the most amazing sight ever!"

"Then what happened?" Kensuke asked dutifully.

"Well, I was stuck inside the plug. The Angel was like this weird glue, so Green Lantern had to pull me out," he said. "I helped, of course."

"Of course," Shinji agreed, silently marveling at the attitude his friend had about all this.

_You'd think he didn't realize how easily he could have died yesterday,_ he thought, feeling far more shaken by the battle than Toji himself appeared to be.

"Anyway, after we get back to the ground, her magic ring ran out of power, so we just had to wait for Blue Beetle to kill it. Once the whole fight was finally over, she came and picked Green Lantern up, and they left," he said, then paused a moment and added. "Me and Green Lantern made out while we were waiting."

Shinji did a double take, giving the jock an incredulous look. Kensuke went further, releasing a snort of laughter and nearly sending some of the juice he'd been drinking out through his nose.

"You did _not_ make out with Green Lantern!" the otaku exclaimed, laughing.

"Oh, were you there?" Toji demanded.

"No, but I sure as hell know that you wouldn't have waited till the thousandth time you told this story to mention it, if it was the truth," Kensuke argued.

"I'm telling you, it happened!" Toji said.

"And I'm saying I won't believe you without pictures," the otaku replied, still smirking.

Shinji was about to speak up, to try and stop the incredibly pointless argument before it could heat up, but he was interrupted by a beeping from his cell phone. Taking it from his pocket, he held it up and then paled at the text message displayed on its screen.

"No," he breathed. "No way."

"What is it, Shinji?" Kensuke asked.

The Third Child didn't seem to hear him. "This can't be right," he muttered to himself.

But it was. The Angel alarms sounding all over the city more than confirmed that much.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Good grief, I left everybody at a cliffhanger recently, didn't I? Well, thanks to Ritsuko, it looks like everybody made it past the Thirteenth Angel no worse for the wear.

Now all they've got to worry about is Slade and the Fourteenth Angel…

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

Now for some fun.

* * *

Omake

Unthinkable

Or

Ham-fisted movie reference

_I should have been there,_ she thought as she hovered in the air, silently gaping at the Angel, as well as the trio of Evangelions it had easily incapacitated with a blast of Green Lantern's power. _None of this would've happened if I'd just had the guts to reject Katsuro's demand that I show up for another stupid demonstration today._

She no doubt that if she'd gone to Matsushiro, rather than sending her holographic double in her place, the scarab would have detected the Angel waiting to strike. This whole disaster could've been brought to an end before it had begun.

_**(Oh, for crying out loud!)**_ The scarab exclaimed, obviously exasperated. _**(This isn't over yet! Angst later! Fight now!)**_

Blue Beetle blinked. "Angst…later?" she asked, as though the idea was a completely foreign concept to her.

_**(Yes! Angst later! Not now!)**_ It said.

"Never!" Blue Beetle exclaimed, much to the scarab's surprise. "Not angsting is simply unacceptable! Even if it's for a moment!"

_**(But…but…THIS IS MADNESS!)**_ The scarab cried.

"Madness?" Blue Beetle asked. "This…is…_EVA!_"


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it, and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Nine:** Move and Countermove

"Geeze, this Angel just couldn't wait, could it?" Blue Beetle complained to no one in particular as she flew over the streets of Tokyo-3. "Nobody's even had the chance to catch their breath after the last one yet."

_**(Personally, I'm ready for more.)**_ The scarab piped up eagerly.

"You don't count. You freaking live for combat," Blue Beetle replied testily.

_**(Hmph.)**_ Was the scarab's annoyed response.

Ritsuko mused that she would probably have to apologize to the scarab later for being rude to it, but she was too concerned with the Angel at the moment to worry about having hurt its feelings.

Unlike most of its siblings, which had given them _some_ amount of warning, the Fourteenth Angel had seemingly just _appeared_ out of thin air, not far from Tokyo-3. Its pace was slow but steady, and it wouldn't be long before it reached the city. The new JSSDF taskforce would never arrive in time, and even NERV would be hard pressed to deploy the Evangelions before the beast was upon them.

_It's a good thing I made a point of finding and repairing holo-Ritsuko's projector as soon as possible,_ Blue Beetle thought.

Then she ascended above the Tokyo-3 skyline, and the time for such concerns vanished as she saw the latest Angel.

It wasn't huge. Not by the Angels' standards, anyway. The Tenth had been larger by several orders of magnitude, and the Fifth would've dwarfed it as well. However, there was something about this one that sent shivers up her spine.

The Angel appeared to be composed almost entirely of what looked like a massive torso, with a pair of stubby little appendages on either side. It had a bony skull-like face on its front, similar to that of the Third Angel but far less avian in appearance. Like most of the Angels, it should've looked silly, but its appearance instead filled the sapphire superwoman with a primal, nearly irresistible fear.

Well, it was either its appearance or the fact that _every single weapons turret_ in Tokyo-3 was firing at the Angel, and it barely seemed to notice.

The Angel's eye sockets flashed, and suddenly a great, cross-shaped blast of energy cut a large swath across Tokyo-3, silencing a large portion of the city's static defenses.

_**(Um, Ritsuko? Are we going to attack or what?)**_ The scarab asked, clearly not as overawed by the Angel as she was.

"R-Right," she said, silently hoping that firing a shot at this Angel wouldn't be tantamount to signing her own death warrant. "Let's not mess around here, scarab. Give me the Annihilator Beam."

_**(Sweet.)**_ It said, clearly approving of her decision to start with the big guns. Immediately, the armor covering her right hand and forearm shifted and changed, becoming a wicked looking gun that Blue Beetle was now quite familiar with.

A targeting reticule appeared on her HUD. Blue Beetle easily got a lock on the red sphere in the Angel's body and fired.

A beam of electric blue light arced through the air, clearly visible even amongst all the gunfire and rockets that the city was still throwing at the Fourteenth Angel. If the beast had its AT field up, the Annihilator Beam pierced the barrier without even slowing down. It reached the ruby sphere, and for one beautiful, naïve second, the sapphire superwoman thought that she would destroy the Angel, just like that.

Then a shutter snapped shut over the Fourteenth Angel's core. It completely blocked the Annihilator Beam, which soon fizzled out, leaving nothing more than one very big scorch mark.

Yet even though the attack had been something of a dud, it proved enough to get the Angel's attention. The beast, which had apparently been preparing to blast its way into the Geofront, now looked up, eye sockets glowing.

"Crap," Blue Beetle hissed.

_**(Yeah.)**_ The scarab agreed, and for once sounded like it intimidated by something that _wasn't_ a Green Lantern power ring.

The Angel fired. Blue Beetle took off through the sky, barely avoiding the immense _column_ of destructive energy that the beast sent their way. However, it turned out that having to avoid energy blasts was the _least_ of their worries. The Angel's spindly appendages unfurled, almost like paper, and then lashed out at the Blue Beetle.

The sapphire superwoman hadn't yet regained her bearings when she saw the Angel's arms coming.

"Scarab!" she shouted.

_**(Right!**_) It replied, knowing what she wanted without her having to spell it out. The direct link between it and her central nervous system was good for that kind of thing.

The scarab, which, unlike Ritsuko, never lost track of which way was up, regardless of what kind of maneuvers they did, immediately seized control of their flight, quickly moving them out of the way of the Angel. Blue Beetle felt her stomach lurch at the crazed movement, but she didn't complain.

Especially not when she looked down and saw that the Angel had managed to graze her lower leg. There was a place on her left calf where the armor was missing, showing the pale flesh beneath, as well as a long but mercifully shallow cut.

_**(I can have that fixed in a jiffy.)**_ The scarab reassured her. _**(But we have to go back on the offensive, and fast, if we want to survive this.)**_

"Agreed," Blue Beetle said. "You know that weapon we used to kill the last Angel?"

_**(Yeah.)**_ The scarab said eagerly.

"Give me that one again, please," Blue Beetle said.

_**(Yeah!)**_ The scarab exclaimed.

Once more, her arms were drawn together not of her own accord to allow the massive gun to form over her hands and forearms. This time, it was Blue Beetle who pulled the trigger.

Once again, a column of blue-white destructive energy burst forth, cascading down upon the Fourteenth Angel. The scarab adjusted the brightness settings on her HUD for her so she wouldn't be blinded, but for all the sapphire superwoman could see of the Angel, she might as well have closed her eyes. It was completely lost in the tide of cerulean light.

Then, after what seemed like an eternity, the attack ended, and Tokyo-3 was no longer awash in blue light.

And Blue Beetle gasped at what she saw.

The Angel was alive. It stood within a massive crater that had once been a city block, the buildings reduced to so much gravel by the force of the sapphire superwoman's attack. Its armored flesh was glowing orange with the heat of the assault it had weathered, but _it was alive_.

Blue Beetle swallowed, feeling like a ball of ice was forming in the pit of her stomach. Before, she had merely been concerned with stealing the kill from the Evangelions in order to strengthen the JSSDF's argument that it, not NERV, should be given all the funds meant for battling the Angels.

Now…

_Stopping this thing from getting to Lilith might be harder than I thought,_ Blue Beetle decided.

The Angel attacked her again, but this time, Blue Beetle was ready for the one-two punch of an energy attack followed by a melee attack. She quickly shot straight up, avoiding the energy beam and then getting herself out of its reach.

"Okay, so what worked on the Thirteenth won't work on the Fourteenth," she said aloud, mind whirling desperately as she tried to come up with some kind of solution. "Scarab, do you have anything stronger than that last weapon that won't destroy the world?"

_**(I have one.)**_ It said, sounding unusually hesitant. _**(However, I believe it might potentially have…theological consequences.)**_

For once, Blue Beetle was the one who was more excited by the prospect of a really deadly weapon. "I'll take it!" she exclaimed.

Instantly, her armor shifted again. The enormous gun that had covered both of her arms quickly vanished, replaced by a much smaller one on her right arm alone.

Blue Beetle blinked in surprise but opted not to comment on how much _less_ deadly the thing looked than her previous weapon. The scarab had yet to disappoint her when she asked for heavy artillery, and in any case, the Angel was still glaring up at her. It would probably fire another energy blast at her as soon as it was able, so she had no time to waste.

Taking aim, she fired at the Angel.

A small, blue and black object burst from the barrel of her weapon, rather than the energy beam she had expected. The thing sailed down, down, down toward the Angel, looking almost placid as it descended.

Then it collided with the beast, and rather than doing what Blue Beetle had expected—erupting into a massive and spectacular explosion that left a towering, mushroom-shaped cloud in its wake—it simply latched onto the Angel's armored hide, where it sat, doing nothing.

Blue Beetle could feel a trickle of sweat running down the back of her head. "Uh, scarab…?"

_**(Wait for it…)**_ The scarab said confidently. Blue Beetle just knew that if the scarab had had a mouth, it would've been grinning mischievously.

Suddenly, thunder rumbled within the puffy white clouds that dotted the crystal blue sky above them. Blue Beetle blinked, looking up at them in surprise. For a moment, she was completely certain that her ears were deceiving her, because it seemed impossible for _those_ bits of sky fluff to be doing that.

Then unnaturally powerful blasts of lightning erupted from the clouds, dazzling the sapphire superwoman's unsuspecting eyes and filling the air with the scent of burnt ozone. The thunderbolts all streamed down toward the Angel, drawn to the beacon that the Blue Beetle had placed on it. For a second, the beast disappeared from view, caught within the center of the converging lightning bolts.

_Wow,_ Blue Beetle thought, suddenly understanding what the scarab had meant by theological consequences. _I don't know whether to start praying to Zeus or Thor!_

Yet, amazingly, impossibly, when Blue Beetle managed to blink the spots out of her vision, the Angel was _still alive._

"No," she moaned, shoulders slumping as she took in the sight of the beast.

This time, it wasn't just glowing with the heat, its armored flesh appeared to have actually become _molten_ in places, much like Third Angel after the JSSDF had dropped an N2 mine on it. However, unlike that Angel, this one didn't look like it was about to stop for a breather.

"It could take any number of hits like that to kill this Angel," Blue Beetle groaned. "Scarab, do you have anything more powerful?"

_**(I **_**always**_** have a bigger gun ready.)**_ It said proudly, then seemed to deflate somewhat. _**(However…all the weapons I have that are more powerful than that one would destroy at least 80 percent of Nippon.)**_

"Okay, so that's not an option," Blue Beetle said, desperately trying to come up with some kind of plan.

_God, why is Misato never around when you need her?_ She wondered in a burst of dark humor.

_**(Uh, Ritsuko?)**_ The scarab piped up.

"Yes?"

_**(Look.)**_ The scarab said, and a little arrow popped up on her HUD.

Blue Beetle looked in the direction that the scarab indicated, and her eyes widened. The three Evangelions had arrived on the surface, courtesy of some of NERV's magnetic lifts. Each was carrying one of the standard pallet rifles.

"What are they thinking, deploying the EVA Units?" Blue Beetle screeched. "They'll be torn to shreds!"

In her mind's eye, she could see the whole gruesome scene play out clearly. Asuka would no doubt jump at the chance to take out an Angel that had withstood all of the Blue Beetle's attacks; she would recklessly charge into battle only to be cut down. Shinji would probably be too stunned to do anything but stand there and allow the Angel to dispatch Unit One. Rei…Rei would be cool and professional as always, but she was the pilot with the lowest synch ratio and in the oldest, most primitive Evangelion. She would fall as well.

"I can't let it happen," she decided at once. "Scarab, we have to stop the Angel somehow. _Now._"

_**(We could send it into the Bleed.)**_ The scarab suggested.

"After what happened with the Twelfth?" Blue Beetle asked.

_**(Hey, I didn't say we have to **_**leave**_** it in the Bleed, did I?)**_ The scarab asked.

A slow smile formed over the sapphire superwoman's face as she realized what the scarab had planned.

_It could work,_ she decided slowly. _The Twelfth Angel only needed a taste of the Bleed to upgrade itself, but this thing's more a scrapper type…_

Then she saw Unit Two take off in a sprint toward the Angel. NERV hadn't been able to deploy the Evangelions very close to the beast, but an EVA could cover a _lot_ of ground in a very brief period of time.

Blue Beetle instantly went into action, throwing her fists forward as she doubled-timed it back down to the Angel. With a thought from her, jets sprouted on the bottom of her boots, and she surged forward with even greater speed. The sound of thunder tore through the city again, but this time it was because Blue Beetle had broken the sound barrier.

The Angel lashed out at her with its thin but deadly arms once again, moving with such speed that it nearly managed to strike her. The Blue Beetle's human reflexes weren't fast enough for her to avoid the attack, so the scarab had to seize control. It deftly guided them past the Angel's arms, leaving nothing between them and their foe.

Retro-rockets emerged all along the Blue Beetle's arms, firing simultaneously. The abrupt deceleration was nothing short of bone-jarring for the human woman inside the alien armor, but she didn't complain. The alternative would've been to collide with the Angel while going at about Mach two.

Instead, she landed lightly on top of its…shoulder, she supposed. She could feel the heat its partially melted body was throwing off, but she ignored it, knowing the scarab and the armor would protect her from it.

Of course, the Angel noticed the Blue Beetle perched atop its body. One of its arms quickly reversed course, heading for her.

_"Now, scarab!"_

She could feel it straining to transport them and the Angel into the Bleed, and she immediately loaned it her full cooperation.

It was perhaps the greatest exertion she had ever made in her entire life, both because the Angel was so massive and because it seemed to be actively resisting them. For just a moment, the single blink of an eye, she could _feel_ its AT field, feel how the Angel was using it to try and stay anchored within their dimension, rather than letting her take it into the space between realms.

_My god,_ she thought as, for just that single fraction of an instant, she felt like she finally understood the AT field, a thing that human minds usually could not quite comprehend.

Then there was a flash of light, and they were in that bizarre soup of light and energy that was the Bleed. The sapphire superwoman spared a glance at the Angel's arm, noting that it was still coming toward her at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, she had no time to worry about that; she needed to get the beast _out_ of the Bleed as soon as possible. She grit her teeth, calling upon reserves of strength and energy she didn't want to know she had, while the scarab did much the same.

There was another flash of light, and they were out of the Bleed. Using the last ergs of her strength, Blue Beetle flew away from the Angel, just in time to avoid its attempt to smash her into paste. The Fourteenth Angel instead struck itself and went reeling.

Despite how exhausted she suddenly was, Blue Beetle couldn't help but chuckle.

Then she took a look at her surroundings. A quick glance was enough to tell her that she wasn't in Kansas anymore.

The sun in the sky above them looked enormous, like an angry ball of flame rather than the happy yellow disk of light she was familiar with, while the sky itself was black rather than blue, with no moon in the sky. The ground beneath her was barren and pitted, much like the surface of the Moon.

Only they weren't on the Moon; they were on the planet Mercury.

The Angel turned to glare down at Blue Beetle again, light burning in its eye sockets.

"Scarab, get us out of here," she said softly.

_**(Are you sure that's a good idea?)**_ It asked.

"No," Blue Beetle confessed. "But I don't think we have a choice."

Her original plan had been to unleash the scarab's _really_ big guns on the Angel once they reached this dead and empty place, millions and millions of miles away from human civilization. Just leaving the Angel to its own devices seemed like something that could very easily come back to bite her in the ass, even if she wasn't quite sure how.

However, she was so weary that she could barely stand. If she stuck around, she wouldn't do anything but die.

The scarab seemed to understand. A moment before an energy blast from the Angel created a new crater where she was standing, the Blue Beetle seemed to wink out of existence.

She reappeared a moment later in her bedroom, in her home, on Earth. Banishing the armor and becoming Ritsuko Akagi again, she somehow managed to make it to her bed and collapse on top of it, not bothering to pull back the sheets first.

Holo-Ritsuko could fill in for her for the rest of the day, she decided. Right now, she needed (and deserved) a good rest.

* * *

"Good evening, I'm Keiko Ogata, reporting live from outside the United Nations building in New York-2," an attractive young woman said, doing her best to look serious and professional as she addressed the camera. "As many of you already know, one of the beings known as an 'Angel' attacked Tokyo-3 three days ago, coming on the heels of the Angel before it.

"Though Tokyo-3 serves as the main base of operations for NERV, the agency that was founded with the specific purpose of defending mankind from the Angels, it was _not_ NERV that defeated this Angel," Keiko continued in a matter-of-fact tone. "That accomplishment instead belongs to the mysterious superwomen known as the Blue Beetle, who serves as the centerpiece of the JSSDF's new anti-Angel taskforce. Even without her allies in the military, Blue Beetle was able to defeat this Angel, almost before NERV was able to so much as deploy their forces."

The picture cut to an extremely grainy bit of footage which showed a huge, mostly brown and white…thing suddenly vanishing in a great flash of blue light.

"Blue Beetle and the new taskforce that the JSSDF has built around her has succeeded in defeating the last three Angels, at a cost of far less than what NERV typically expends fighting _one_ Angel," Keiko went on as the camera returned to her. "As a result, many people are starting to question the need for NERV, and that sentiment has reached the General Assembly. Earlier today, they voted with an overwhelming majority to slash the NERV auxiliary budget by a whopping 70 percent. The funds will be reallocated to the JSSDF anti-Angel taskforce.

"In other news—"

Gendo heard someone push a button and the 2-D hologram that had been floating in the center of the SEELE meeting room flickered out of existence, taking the young reporter Keiko Ogata with it.

"As you can see, Ikari, the situation is deteriorating rapidly, to put it mildly," SEELE 01 stated in a positively acerbic tone.

"I am aware," Gendo replied in a completely flat voice.

In truth, he was more than aware of the General Assembly's decision. He had already begun the process of figuring out how to adjust to NERV's soon-to-be-reduced budget.

All work on the Dummy System would have to be halted immediately, and several damaged sections of headquarters would have to remain damaged and useless. Upgrades to the Evangelions and their equipment would have to be chosen far more carefully than they had been in the past.

On the plus side, the new paucity of funds was no doubt hampering the construction of the Mass Produced EVA Series, which Gendo had always felt quite certain would be used against him one day.

_Scant comfort if the entire Scenario collapses now,_ he thought grimly.

"What you may not be aware of is that the American member of Security Council recently proposed revoking NERV's budget entirely in a closed session," SEELE 01 added.

Gendo's eyes widened slightly, making him very glad that he wore tinted glasses. The General Assembly could chip away at NERV's funding, but they could not do anything that would force the organization to disband entirely. The Security Council, on the other hand, was a very different matter.

"I was of the belief that this council controlled the American member of the Security Council," Gendo said, glancing pointedly at the monolith of SEELE 05, behind which hid the American member of the Human Instrumentality Committee.

"NERV has never been popular in my country," SEELE 05 said defensively.

"The Americans don't like the idea of someone besides them saving the world," SEELE 11 groused cynically. "Frankly, I think half of them would rather see the planet burn than let the Japanese rescue them all. We are just fortunate that our more loyal members vetoed the proposal."

"Enough," SEELE 01 broke in before SEELE 05 could retort. "It is true that NERV has never been popular in the United States, and the loss of Unit Four and the Second Branch only made things worse. It is also unsurprising that the American member of the Security Council was the first to defy us as a result of that."

"That _any_ member of the Security Council would even _suggest_ disbanding NERV, however, is a very bad sign. A very bad sign indeed," SEELE 02 said.

"We have not worked so hard and so patiently to see the Scenario fall apart at this late stage," SEELE 04 added.

"Haven't you taken our advice with regards to hiring a 'professional' about this problem?" SEELE 03 asked.

"I have," Gendo answered evenly. "However, Mr. Wilson seems to work at his own pace. Convincing him to speed things up will doubtlessly require a monetary incentive, and as you are all aware, NERV has less funding than it used to."

"We will ensure that you are provided with sufficient funds for this," SEELE 01 vowed. "Just make sure this problem goes away as soon as possible."

"Understood," Gendo said.

The monoliths winked out of existence.

* * *

"For centuries, humankind never even attempted to quantify the divine, assuming that it was something beyond our comprehension," the voice of Yui Ikari spoke in Shinji's ears as he walked through NERV headquarters. "Only in recent times has science begun to chip away at this great mystery, revealing facts that are often more confusing than illuminating. Such as—"

The Third Child stopped the tape as he approached his destination. The sound of his mother's voice soothed him, even if she was giving a lecture and trying to sound scholarly and professional rather than affectionate. However, what she was talking about went over his head entirely once she got into technical details, and he had long since ceased to actually listen to the words.

"Well, now or never," he said softly to himself as he took the ear buds out.

He knocked on the door to Ritsuko's office.

"Come in," she called.

He entered, and the blonde looked up from her computer screen, smiling when she saw him. That was a good sign, he supposed.

"Hello, Shinji," she greeted him.

"I hope I'm not bothering you at a bad time," he said, suddenly feeling intensely awkward.

"Not at all," she said, rising from her chair. "I always have time for you. What brings you here, Shinji?"

His eyes darted around the room nervously. He hadn't wanted to make her stand, but there was no guest chair in the room, and he didn't want to make her sit while he stood over her, either.

"Um, a few things, really. I wanted to thank you again for those tapes," he said, holding up his SDAT to illustrate his point. "Getting to hear my mother's voice, it's nice." He added softly.

"That's why I gave them to you," Ritsuko said with a smile. "I just hope the lectures aren't too boring."

"They're not that bad," he mumbled, then found himself at a lack for something else to say. He had no idea how to steer the conversation toward the topic he wanted to discuss. As the silence stretched out, he quickly grew desperate and eventually blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "You know, your efforts to take better care of yourself are really paying off. I swear, you look ten years younger than you did when I first came here."

He blushed furiously the moment the words had escaped him, but Ritsuko just smiled more broadly. "Thank you, I feel a lot better, too," she said. "Hey, you're not trying to butter me up, are you? Just what do you want from me, Pilot Ikari?"

Her tone was playful, but Shinji suddenly felt like he'd been caught red-handed.

Noticing his sudden, deer-caught-in-the-headlights look, Ritsuko frowned slightly. "So you do want something?" she asked. "Well, whatever is, you can tell me, Shinji. I can't promise that I'll give it to you, but you can always ask me things."

"Right, thanks," he said, slightly less ill at ease. "Well, you heard about how the UN is cutting NERV's funding, right?"

She nodded. "Of course," she said. "A number of my own projects are being shelved as a result."

"Right, well, there are rumors going around that the UN will completely shut down NERV eventually, especially if the Blue Beetle keeps defeating the Angels before we can," he said.

"It definitely seems like a possibility," Ritsuko said, patiently waiting for him to get to the point.

"Well, I sort of overhead Misato talking with Hyuga about what it would be like if that happens," Shinji continued, feeling a twinge of guilt. He hadn't _tried_ to eavesdrop on Misato, but he still felt bad about having listened to her private conversation. "She thinks there's a good chance that the military might transfer her to a new post, probably someplace dangerous."

Ritsuko shrugged. "Well, I don't really know much about how the regular military works, and…oh," she said, finally figuring out what he was getting at. "And if Misato ends up stationed in some Third World hellhole, you won't be able to live with her anymore."

"That's right," Shinji said. "I already decided that I don't want to live with my Uncle again if I don't have to, and I really don't think my father will want to take me in. So I was wondering, if you were…serious when you offered to take me in before."

"Shinji, I—"

"You don't have to, you know," he cut her off, speaking very fast. "I understand if you only offered because you felt sorry for me and never really thought I'd try to take you up on it. I'll understand if you say no. I mean, asking to live with someone—"

"Shinji," she said firmly, ending his ramblings. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Listen to me, I didn't make that offer out of pity. I made it because I like you, I think you're a very nice young man, and I would love to have you as a roommate." A mischievous twinkle then appeared in her eyes. "And who knows? Maybe in a few years we'll be _more_ than just roommates."

"R-Ritsuko!" he stammered, blushing. "Don't tease me!"

"Are you sure I _am_ teasing?" she asked with a grin.

Shinji went from bright red to purple at this. "Um…t-thank you, for agreeing to let me stay with you, if…if Misato gets redeployed somewhere bad," he stammered, giving Ritsuko a deep bow. "I, uh, I guess I'll see you later."

With that, he practically ran from her office. Ritsuko couldn't help but chuckle as she watched him leave.

_No wonder Misato does this to him so much,_ she thought, deciding that she would very much enjoy living with Shinji, if it came to that.

* * *

Until fairly recently, the JSSDF Auxiliary Air Base hadn't been anything special. It was located about thirty kilometers from Tokyo-3, at what had, during the Impact Wars, been considered a strategic location of moderate importance. It had largely been allowed to molder during the time of peace that had followed, and there had been talk of shutting it down entirely.

The coming of the Angels had changed that. Suddenly, the JSSDF found itself repeatedly deploying air forces to the Tokyo-3 area, first in an attempt to stop the Third Angel themselves, then in a support capacity for NERV. Still, the base had only been a convenient place to keep the VTOL fighters.

It wasn't until General Katsuro had made the place the base of operations for the new Anti-Angel taskforce that it had had anything to distinguish it.

Unfortunately, it was because of that new distinction that a saboteur had snuck past the base's very advanced security under the cover of night and was now heading toward the hanger where the BVG313's were kept.

"Are you inside?" the voice of Slade Wilson came to her via the ear bud she was wearing.

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered softly, careful to avoid the gazes of the guards stationed around the base as she crept toward her destination. "I'm in. I still don't see why we have to do this, though. The original plan would've worked just fine."

"Our current employer paid handsomely for us to accelerate our efforts," Slade answered simply. "Adjustments had to be made. In any event, I do enjoy the challenge."

The saboteur rolled her eyes. She had long ago decided that Slade got bored far too easily. Speaking for herself, she didn't mind it if the jobs were easy. Sure, you didn't build much of a reputation that way, but so long as the money kept rolling in, she didn't really care.

_But not Slade, oh no,_ she thought. _He's not happy unless the client wants us to shoot the target exactly seven times with a six-shooter, while he's in a room full of police. All without being seen. Or some crazy crap like that._

"Well, I can tell you what I _don't_ enjoy," she said. "All this sneaking around. I'm a fire and explosions kind of girl."

"I'm aware, but the military's new toys aren't the target, just something we can use to get the target's attention," Slade responded. "We can't tip our hand quite yet."

"I still don't see why it has to be me doing this, though," she complained as she stealthily made her way into the hanger. "You could've sent one of the others."

"You have certain _qualities_ that they do not possess, my dear," Slade reminded.

"Whatever," she grumbled, closing the line.

It was time to get to work. Once she was certain that the hanger was clear, she opened the backpack that she'd been carrying, revealing a number of metal canisters. Working quickly, she went from plane to plane, attaching a metal canister to each of them before moving on. In mere minutes, she was done.

"Time to get out of here," she muttered to herself.

Her exit was as free of incident as her entrance had been, and in only minutes she was walking through a field outside the boundaries of the base, a comfortable distance away from it.

She tapped her earpiece. "Charges are set."

"Then what are you waiting for? You said you like fire and explosions," Slade replied. "Do it."

Grinning, she reached into her backpack, grabbing the detonator inside. She armed it, then pressed the button.

A massive fireball erupted behind her as the explosives went off, the base's hanger erupting as billions of yen worth of advanced military hardware went up in smoke.

"Your move, Blue Beetle," the woman said as she continued her leisurely retreat from the base.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Tokyo-3, Ritsuko Akagi was currently tinkering down in her little basement workshop, having quite a good time.

_**(Ritsuko, this is boring. Can't we go out and fight crime or something?)**_

The scarab, not so much.

"No," she said. "Listen, scarab, the fact is that you're bonded to someone who's a total science nerd at heart. Now that I have access to all this advanced alien technology, and with all this immense computing power at my fingertips…well, you should consider yourself lucky I don't spend a lot _more_ time down here."

_**(What are you trying to make, anyway?)**_ It asked her.

"A matter transporter," she answered.

_**(…really?)**_

"Yes, really," she retorted. "Scarab, we transported ourselves and an Angel that must've weighed hundreds of tons all the way to the planet _Mercury_ in just a few seconds."

_**(We should really go and finish that Angel off, by the way.)**_ The scarab broke in. _**(At the least, it would be a lot more fun than doing this.)**_

"Well, if you could find the thing, maybe we would," the blonde allowed herself to be side-tracked momentarily.

_**(Hey, Mercury might be smaller than Earth, but it's still a planet! And planets are really big! Besides, all the solar radiation makes it hard to scan.)**_ The scarab said defensively. _**(And anyway, it doesn't seem to be a threat to you humans, stuck there as it is.)**_

"Which is why my time is better spent doing this," Ritsuko concluded with a triumphant smirk. "Anyway, as I was saying, Reach technology is clearly capable of transporting matter from Point A to Point B by sending it through the Bleed. I want to see if I can make a device that can do that."

_**(You already have one. Me.)**_ The scarab said flatly.

"I didn't make you," Ritsuko pointed out.

The scarab just grumbled wordlessly for a few moments in response to that before finally falling silent. For several minutes, Ritsuko was allowed to work on her little project in peace.

_**(Ritsuko?)**_ The scarab eventually spoke up again, apparently growing bored.

"Yes?" she asked, trying to hold back her annoyance.

_**(Did you mean what you said to Shinji this afternoon?)**_ It asked.

Ritsuko frowned. "Of course I did," she said. "He's a very nice young man, and, from what Misato tells me, extremely helpful around the house. I wouldn't mind living with him at all, if he couldn't stay with Misato anymore."

_**(No, I didn't mean that. I was talking about the part where you told him that you two might be more than friends in a few years.)**_ The scarab said. _**(Did you mean that?)**_

Ritsuko stopped her work. "Why do you ask?"

The scarab performed the mental equivalent of a shrug. _**(Well, I **_**am**_** joined to you, so this type of thing is kind of relevant to me.)**_ It pointed out. _**(But mostly I'm just curious. I don't know a lot about human mating, but you never seemed interested in him before.)**_

"Well, he's too young right now," she said. "But in a few years, maybe, I guess…"

She trailed off, giving the matter serious thought. Shinji was a cute kid, and she could easily see him growing into an attractive young man soon. She had never thought about pursuing a relationship with a younger man, though, especially not with a man who was so _much_ younger than she was.

_God, I'll be halfway to forty by the time he's legal,_ she thought.

Of course, thanks to the scarab, she currently felt younger and more energetic than she had in her twenties, so waiting for him wasn't the imposition it once would've been. Shinji was also one of the very few people she had a real relationship with, someone whose company she genuinely enjoyed. It was rare for her to make connections like that with other people, especially men.

Still, there was something _undeniably_ messed up about the idea of her ever sleeping with Shinji after she'd slept with his father, who had slept with her mother…

"I don't know, scarab," she finally admitted. "I guess it's one of those things where we have to wait and see what happens."

_**(This "love" thing you humans try to do is complicated.)**_ The scarab observed.

Ritsuko smiled wryly. "You're telling me!" she said, going back to work on her project.

However, it wasn't long before she was interrupted again, this time by a call on the "blue phone."

"Blue Beetle here," she answered, finally resigning herself to the fact that fate simply would not allow her to get much work done on her matter transporter that night.

"Beetle, this is General Katsuro," the officer's voice replied, sounding grim. "There's been a development at the base where we keep the hardware made with your tech."

"What sort of development?" she asked, suddenly having visions of all the Reach-tech developing a mind of its own and turning on its masters.

"An explosion," Katsuro answered. "We aren't sure yet, but I'd bet anything that someone blew that stuff up deliberately."

"I'll be right there," Ritsuko said at once. "My armor has some extremely sophisticated sensors. Maybe I can find something that the forensics people can't."

_If I can link NERV to this, it'll be the final nail in the coffin for sure,_ she thought.

"Good," Katsuro said. "I'll tell them to expect you. Katsuro out."

_**(Sweet!)**_ The scarab exclaimed, clearly thrilled to be escaping Ritsuko's basement.

"Scarab, this isn't a good thing," she admonished it.

_**(Oh, right, sorry.)**_ The scarab said, sounding sheepish.

Ritsuko shook her head. "Suit me up, scarab," she said.

_**(You got it.)**_

The blue and black armor appeared over her form, turning Ritsuko Akagi into Blue Beetle once again. The sapphire superwoman then dimension shifted herself, flying through the walls of her home and into the sky.

"Scarab, can you plot me a course to the air base?" she asked.

_**(No problem.)**_ It replied, and a small map appeared on her HUD, along with an arrow pointing her in the proper direction.

It took Blue Beetle only minutes to cover the distance, and her eyes widened as the sight of the air base. A great column of smoke was floating up into the sky, and flames were still crackling inside the ruins of the hanger.

"Damn," she breathed, shifting herself back into phase with the rest of the universe as she descended.

She was approached by an officer the moment she touched the ground. "Blue Beetle, I am Colonel Sakai," he nodded politely. "General Katsuro has told me that you're here to investigate this incident?"

He sounded skeptical, which Blue Beetle could definitely appreciate. The idea of trying to figure out who was behind what had happened before they'd even put out the fire must've seemed a little out there.

"I am," she nodded. "I have some pretty sophisticated scanners in this armor of mine."

"Do you require assistance?" Sakai asked.

"No, thank you," she replied.

"In that case, I must get back to coordinating things here," Sakai said. "If you need anything, just ask someone."

She thanked the man, who then quickly departed to get back to work, then turned to look at the burning ruin of the hanger for a moment before deciding that it was high time to get to work.

_Okay, scarab, I think you know what to do,_ she told it silently.

_**(Right, commencing a scan of the area…)**_ It said, and Blue Beetle could feel a part of its mind, the part that was more like a computer than anything else, racing as it started up a series of processes. _**(Aha.)**_

_What?_ She asked.

_**(This was **_**definitely**_** not an accident. I'm picking up traces of substances that aren't used at a JSSDF base. The remains of bomb components, and a chemical compound that's commonly used as an accelerant.)**_ The scarab said. _**(I'm also picking up faint traces of radiation.)**_

_Radiation?_ Blue Beetle frowned, feeling both concerned and confused. Confused because the blast, while impressive, had been far too small to be nuclear. Concerned because she feared that the soldiers in the area might be getting irradiated.

_**(Not enough to harm a person.)**_ The scarab reassured her. _**(I don't know what made it, but there's a trail of the stuff leading away from here.)**_

Blue Beetle didn't know why the saboteur might've been leaking radiation, but there wasn't anything else at the JSSDF base that could've created it. Besides, it was the only thing she had to go on.

_I want to follow that trail,_ she told the scarab. _Can you point me in the right direction?_

_**(Of course.)**_ It replied, and an arrow appeared on her HUD again, showing her the way.

Blue Beetle took off in pursuit of the person who had done this to the JSSDF base, blissfully unaware of the fact that she was headed right into a trap.

* * *

Author's Notes: Okay, back on schedule here. Now to address the first thing you're all probably thinking about, yes the Fourteenth Angel will be making a reappearance later on. You can't just sweep an Angel under the rug like that and expect it to never return.

To address the second thing you're probably all thinking about, the associate of Slade who's seen here is a Teen Titans villian that I thought would make a good addition to his team for this fic, but I don't believe she's ever worked with him in the comics. I know it might seem a little odd to be grabbing other villians for this, seeing as how Slade's been the team leader plenty of times, but many of his more familiar associates just didn't work for me for one reason or another. Never fear, though, as some of the people you'd definitely expect him to work with will make an appearance when Ritsuko confronts Deathstroke next chapter.

Anyway, as always, thanks to my all my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Ten:** A Stroke of Bad Luck

"Scarab, are you sure that we're still following that radiation trail?" Blue Beetle asked.

_**(Of course I'm sure.)**_ It responded, sounding insulted.

Though the sapphire superwoman had long ago learned not to doubt the scarab's sensors, she couldn't help but be skeptical. She had been following the trail of the saboteur who had blown up the JSSDF base for some time now, and it wasn't taking her to the kind of place she would have expected.

_If I'd just left a bomb in a military base, I'd want to get to a road and just drive the hell away as quickly as possible_. _I sure as hell wouldn't have come here,_ she thought, looking out at the ruins of a coastal city.

Like many of the areas near the shore, the tsunamis on the day of Second Impact had effectively wiped it off the map. The water had receded significantly since then; most of the city was actually on dry land, at least during low tide. However, it was still very prone to flooding during any heavy rainstorm. As the population of Japan remained far less than what it had been, the city had been allowed to molder and decay.

_**(This place is kind of eerie.)**_ The scarab thought as Blue Beetle stepped onto the derelict streets.

"Yeah," Blue Beetle agreed.

Someone who'd been in the military and seen combat, such as Misato, would have figured it out sooner. Ritsuko Akagi had never been a solider; though she was employed by a paramilitary group, she was still very much considered to be a civilian.

However, she was also smarter than average, so she managed to glom onto it in time.

"This is an ambush," she said, unable to believe it had taken her this long to figure it out.

It was none too soon. The instant she made the connection, an enormous chunk of broken concrete rose up from the city ruins, as though lifted by the hands of an invisible giant, and went spiraling toward her.

"Oh, crap!" Blue Beetle hissed.

She tried to get out of the way, but the scarab had, as always, run the numbers, and it knew that simply wasn't a feasible method of not getting squished. It frantically took control of her right arm, and the armor on it shifted and changed, becoming a wicked looking firearm. It released an electric buzz for a moment, and then a pulse of bright blue light shot out of it, striking the flying chunk of concrete.

_**BOOM!**_

The massive, multi-ton piece of artificial stone _exploded_ into countless smaller pieces, several of which pelted harmlessly against the Blue Beetle's armor. Unfortunately, it also had the effect of filling the air with dust, blinding her.

"I can't see," the sapphire superwoman complained, coughing.

_**(Oh, no problem. I just saved your life. No need to thank me or anything.)**_ The scarab responded sarcastically.

_Yes, that was very nice of you,_ Blue Beetle mentally growled back. _Now would you please get some sensors or something working, so we don't die anyway?_

_**(I can't! Something's interfering with them all of a sudden! I'm trying to compensate!)**_

Before Blue Beetle could tell the scarab to compensate _faster_, a bright beam of yellow light cut through the dusty gloom, striking the ground a good ten meters away from her feet. The cracked asphalt erupted, and the sapphire superwoman was sent flying by the force of the blast, colliding painfully with the wall of a nearby building.

_Not my day,_ Blue Beetle decided as she shook out the cobwebs.

She did get one small piece of good fortune, though. A strong breeze came in from the nearby ocean just then, blowing a great deal of the dust out of the way and allowing her to finally see her foes.

One was a tall, lithe woman with long blond hair, who was standing upon a large boulder that was hovering over the ground, impossibly defying gravity. She was clad in a black tank top and yellow shorts, she couldn't have been more than 20, yet the armored superwoman could easily see the malice in her pretty blue eyes.

The other woman was a lot more unusual looking. Wearing jeans, a camouflage print tank top, combat boots, and dog tags, she almost might have passed for a normal soldier in some country's military if not for her skin. Every square inch of it that Blue Beetle could see was metallic and shining, like living steel.

_**(Well, now I know where that radiation was coming from, and what's interfering with my sensors.)**_ The scarab said.

Blue Beetle didn't even have to ask to know that it meant the metallic woman.

"Hey, there, insect," the young woman in question greeted the Blue Beetle, smirking down at the sapphire superwoman.

_Scarab, scan them,_ Blue Beetle ordered. _See if they have any weaknesses we can exploit._

_**(I can't. Not until I figured out how to get past the interference!)**_ It replied.

_Great,_ she thought.

"So," Blue Beetle said aloud to the two women, hoping to stall for time, "are you two the ones who blew up the base?"

"That was all my handiwork," the silver-skinned woman boasted, clearly not suffering from even the smallest trace of guilt over the people she'd killed. "Terra here just offered moral support." She hooked a thumb toward the blonde, who scowled in response.

"And who're you?" Blue Beetle demanded.

"These days, everybody who knows me calls me Bombshell. You have to admit that it fits," she said with a smirk.

"Enough talk," Terra said. "Let's just do the damn job already!"

Blue Beetle didn't have to ask what exactly the job was; it was incredibly obvious that killing her was it. Terra spread her arms, and several rocks, pieces of asphalt, and chunks of concrete rose up into the air. Then they all went whizzing toward Blue Beetle.

"Oh, damn!" the sapphire superwoman exclaimed.

Immediately, she started firing at the rocky missiles coming at her, and with the scarab's help, she was able to shoot faster and with perfect accuracy, destroying two dozen of them in seconds. Unfortunately, there were more than two dozen.

A _lot_ more.

Cursing, Blue Beetle abandoned the gun, instead summoning forth the large shield from her armor, the one that looked like a beetle's wings. She could feel the impacts traveling up her arms and to her shoulders as the barrage of rocky missiles hit the shield. Even with her enhanced strength, it wasn't long before she ached like hell.

"Come on, Terra! That's barely hurting her!" Bombshell chided, laughing. "Turn up the heat!"

Blue Beetle risked a peek around her shield, and saw the silver-skinned woman's hands glowing with a fierce yellow light. She ducked back behind her shield just as Bombshell loosened two beams of energy at her.

The sapphire superwoman grunted as the energy blasts impacted against her shield with the force of a battering ram. The temperature of the air around her seemed to spike; she could feel herself sweating heavily beneath her armor.

_**(Hey, Ritsuko? I **_**really**_** think you have to stop playing defense like this, and soon.)**_ The scarab spoke up, sounding distinctly nervous. _**(Look!)**_

She did, and her eyes widened in alarm as she saw that two spots on her shield were actually glowing red with the heat from Bombshell's attack. As she watched, they visibly increased in size. Even if her armor was able to insulate her from the heat (unlikely), her shield looked ready to melt any second now.

_Here goes everything,_ she thought.

The sapphire superwoman flipped into the air, being careful to never let Bombshell's attacks strike her directly. Not even wanting to try letting her armor reabsorb the superheated shield, she simply dropped it on the ground, where it steamed when coming into contact with the cool, damp earth.

_Scarab, the suppression rifle,_ Blue Beetle ordered curtly.

_**(You got it.)**_

A second later, the armor on her right arm had morphed into the desired weapon, and the Blue Beetle aimed at Terra, desperately hoping to neutralize the blonde before Bombshell could redirect her own attacks.

"Say goodnight," she said and fired, sending a blast of blue light streaking toward her enemy.

"I'm not tired," Terra said, making wide, sweeping motions with her arms.

Several large rocks burst up from the ground, spraying dirt and gravel as they emerged, and flew right into the path of the blast. The discharge from the suppression rifle splashed harmlessly against the rocky shields.

"You look like you could use a nap, though," the younger blonde added.

With one quick gesture, she sent the stones that had been her impromptu shield careening toward the sapphire superwoman at the speed of bullets.

Blue Beetle quickly shot up higher into the air, barely missing the hail of rocks. The stones crashed into the derelict buildings behind her, striking with a series of loud crashes and easily punching holes through the steel and concrete.

"Well, what do ya know? She's actually got some fight in her!" Bombshell said. She sounded delighted.

"More than the two of you can handle!" Blue Beetle retorted, firing several blasts from her rifle at the silver-skinned woman.

Bombshell didn't even try to dodge, letting the bolts of blue light splash harmlessly against her metallic hide. Smirking, she took off into the air, headed straight toward the armored superwoman.

_Fine,_ the sapphire superwoman thought, scowling. _Low tech it is, then._

She threw a punch at the approaching attacker. Bombshell smartly caught Blue Beetle's fist in her palm, then lashed out with her free hand. The sapphire superwoman cried out in pain as Bombshell's fist connected with her face.

Before she could try to strike back, the silver-skinned woman grabbed her arm with both hands and performed a simple flip, sending Blue Beetle careening toward the ground. She crashed into the street, shattering the asphalt beneath her.

_**(She's strong.)**_ The scarab groaned.

_Yeah, I noticed,_ Blue Beetle replied. She knew that she should be getting up right about then, but somehow she couldn't quite muster the will to do it. _Any luck scanning them?_

_**(Not yet. Try and survive for another minute or two.)**_ The scarab replied.

Before Blue Beetle could come up with an appropriately sarcastic response, Bombshell appeared in her field of vision. The silver-skinned woman was using both hands to heft a small car over her head.

"It's been fun," Bombshell smirked, just before she brought the car down.

Blue Beetle phased just before the car hit her, becoming invisible and intangible to the rest of the world around her. Taking a second to catch her breath, she watched as Bombshell lifted up the car, only to frown in surprise when she failed to find any sign of her enemy.

"Where the hell is she?" the silver-skinned woman wondered aloud.

Blue Beetle switched from the suppression rifle to the annihilator beam and went back into phase with the rest of the world. "Right here," she said, and fired point blank.

A single, continuous beam of destruction erupted from the barrel of her weapon, striking Bombshell right in the stomach and sending her flying. She soon crashed into the side of a building and was kept pinned in place by the force of the attack. The wall she was stuck against soon began to crack.

"Ah!" Bombshell cried. "Quit it!"

"First, tell me who sent you," Blue Beetle demanded. "Was it NERV?"

"Go to hell!" Bombshell barked, firing several blasts of yellow energy at the sapphire superwoman, which she easily avoided.

"Talk! Now!" Blue Beetle demanded.

Before Bombshell could respond, several tendrils of earth rose up around the sapphire superwoman, then quickly wrapped themselves around her, snake-like. Blue Beetle let out a cry of surprise and fear as the dirt converged on her, covering her from the neck down and forcing her to relent in her assault on Bombshell.

"We don't talk about our employers," Terra informed her, voice cold. "We're professionals."

"You're mercenaries. Assassins," Blue Beetle said.

"Duh," Terra replied, just before the earth rose up further and covered Blue Beetle's head.

The sapphire superwoman inhaled sharply, feeling panic grip her at the thought that she'd just been buried alive.

She might have completely lost it if the scarab hadn't spoken up. _**(Um, hello? I can keep you alive in **_**outer space.**_** You think you're going to die now that you're surrounded by dirt?)**_

_Oh, sorry. Instinct, I guess,_ Blue Beetle replied, feeling sheepish. _You have any ideas how to get out of this?_

If the scarab had a face, it would have grinned.

* * *

"Really? The old 'buried alive' trick?" Bombshell grumbled as she pulled herself out of the now rather deep indentation in the side of the building. "We're facing off against the most interesting enemy we've ever had, and you dust off that old thing?"

Scowling, Terra rolled her eyes. "Like you have any right to complain," she retorted. "Blue Beetle was handing you your ass until I jumped in."

"Yeah, thanks for being so quick about that, by the way," Bombshell said sarcastically.

"God, you always have something to complain about, don't you?" Terra said, exasperated. "Look, she's dead, and we're not. That's a win, so can we just call this one and wrap and collect our money?"

"Are you sure she's dead?" Bombshell asked, studying the lump of rock and dirt that Blue Beetle had been trapped in suspiciously.

Terra allowed the floating boulder she was standing on to slowly descend to the ground. "How could Blue Beetle possibly still be alive in there?" she asked. "If the pressure hasn't crushed her, then she _has_ to have suffocated by now."

"I don't know about that," Bombshell said. "I dropped a car on that bitch, and the next thing I know, she's standing right next to me and hitting me with a damn laser."

Terra shook her head. "Geeze, Amy, you are _way_ too—"

She abruptly stopped speaking as the mound of dirt that Blue Beetle was trapped inside started to tremble noticeably. A second later, several cracks formed along the length of it. Shafts of intense blue light could be seen streaming out of them.

"You were saying?" Bombshell asked.

"Shut up," Terra grumbled.

What was supposed to be Blue Beetle's tomb _exploded_, sending dirt and rocks flying in all directions. The armored superwoman who emerged looked none the worse for the wear.

Bombshell reacted immediately, firing energy blasts from both hands at the Blue Beetle. The sapphire superwoman's armor changed and shifted, until she had two small cannons on both of her arms, which she fired back at the silver-skinned woman.

The blasts met at the midpoint between the two, and though there was a good deal of light and sparks where the two pairs of energy streams met, the explosion Bombshell had expected never came. Instead, she could feel a type of pressure as the Blue Beetle tried to push back her attack.

"Oh, _hell no!_" she growled. Intent on winning, she redoubled her efforts, the yellow beams growing in brightness and intensity.

She pushed Blue Beetle's energy attack a bit, but then the armored superwoman grit her teeth and poured on the power herself, bringing them back to even.

Clenching her teeth, Bombshell dared to take a quick look at Terra. The blonde was back in the air, her boulder levitating several feet off the ground again. Otherwise, however, she had done nothing since Blue Beetle had busted out of her earthen prison.

_Probably waiting until I need help,_ Bombshell thought sourly. _Wants to look like the damn hero. Again._

Deciding that she wasn't going to give Terra the chance, she threw every ounce of effort she had into her assault, but Blue Beetle was again able to match her. The silver-skinned woman had almost resigned herself to their contest being one of endurance when the sapphire superwoman's armor released a single, loud beep.

It reminded Bombshell of the sound her microwave made when it was finished making popcorn.

Abruptly, Blue Beetle leapt into the air and stayed there, terminating their contest. Bombshell's energy blasts slammed into the ground, shattering the sidewalk and sending chunks of concrete flying everywhere.

"Know what that sound meant?" Blue Beetle asked.

"You just got an email?" Bombshell suggested flippantly.

"It means I can finally scan you," Blue Beetle replied.

"And? What's that mean? You can see through my top?" Bombshell asked with a snicker.

Blue Beetle smiled wickedly. "It means I know how to deal with you now."

Then, the gun on her right arm shifted and changed, becoming a different, larger firearm. With inhuman speed, she took aim at Bombshell and fired, dousing the silver-skinned woman with liquid nitrogen and freezing her soundly in place.

Nearby, Terra gasped. There wasn't a whole lot that could hurt Bombshell; she was pure energy contained by an outer shell of nearly indestructible metal. However, an attack like _that_ would force her to keep still until she thawed, lest she break her suddenly brittle suit. _That_ would have catastrophic results.

At least it would be catastrophic for Bombshell, anyway. Terra had always been dubious of the other woman's claim that it would also result in a nuclear explosion. More likely the silver-skinned woman had just said that in hopes that Terra and her other associates would make certain to protect her.

The bottom line was that Blue Beetle apparently wasn't bluffing when she said she knew how to deal with them now.

Immediately, Terra sprang into action, extending her arms and reaching out with her powers. Artificial stone like concrete and asphalt had always been a little harder for her to control than dirt and rock, but she wasn't about to be picky. She lifted up everything she could grab with her powers and hurled all of it at the Blue Beetle.

However, the momentum was clearly on the side of the sapphire superwoman now, and she seemed to know it, too. Blue Beetle confidently navigated her way through the hail of stone, blasting some of the larger pieces to gravel.

"When it comes to you, I have to admit I'm embarrassed I didn't figure out how to deal with you without the scan," Blue Beetle said, chuckling to herself. "I guess I'm still a little new at this."

"Shut up!" Terra growled as her fear grew.

Drawing upon reserves of power she didn't want to know she had, the blonde spread her arms, then slowly began to raise them, a grimace on her face and beads of sweat running down her brow.

Behind her, two dilapidated skyscrapers rose off the ground, pieces of them crumbling as they moved for the first time since a tsunami had hit them on the day of Second Impact.

"Deal with this!" she screamed, and with a mighty mental heave, send the two buildings flying toward Blue Beetle.

The skyscrapers obscured her sight of the armored woman long before they hit her, but Terra noted how Blue Beetle hadn't been making any attempt to dodge, apparently paralyzed by fear. The lithe blonde grinned in savage triumph.

Then the two buildings crashed to the ground with a spectacular crash, the impacts causing the earth to briefly tremble beneath them and kicking up an enormous cloud of dust.

Confident that Blue Beetle was dead, Terra allowed herself several seconds of rest, wiping the sweat from her forehead and panting heavily. It was only when she felt somewhat recovered that she reached out again with her powers. Waving her hand in a dismissive manner, she caused the great cloud of dust to disperse.

Only to reveal Blue Beetle hovering in the air before her, completely unharmed.

"No way!" Terra exclaimed, even as she leapt into action.

Calling upon her powers again, she commanded the boulder she was standing on to break into pieces, which quickly moved to cover her body from head to toe, leaving only her face exposed and giving her a rocky suit of armor that would (hopefully) protect her from Blue Beetle's energy attacks.

"Bring it on!" she exclaimed, pounding her fists together and generating a satisfying thud as stone met stone.

Blue Beetle replied by shifting her weapon again and firing, but the beam of blue light that Terra had expected never came. Instead, a high pitched whine filled her ears, causing her to grimace.

"What the hell?" Terra groaned, putting her hands over her ears as best she could while clad in her rocky armor, only to discover that had virtually no effect.

"Sonic weapon," Blue Beetle answered. "Your rocks don't do anything to block this. In fact, solids transmit sound better than the air, so…"

Terra didn't hear any part of the explanation after that, because the sound assaulting her eardrums was only growing louder, even as the pitch became higher still. Crying out in pain, the blonde moved to lash out at the Blue Beetle, fearing that her head would explode if she didn't stop that awful sound.

Unfortunately, her aim was a little off thanks to the agony she was in, and the rocky missiles missed their target by a wide margin. With her ability to think straight or focus her powers properly diminishing rapidly, Terra soon resorted to using the rocks that composed her impromptu armor, sending them whizzing toward Blue Beetle and leaving only enough to keep herself suspended in midair.

Despite the speeds at which they were moving, the small rocks bounced harmlessly off of Blue Beetle's armor.

_Well, crap,_ Terra managed to think.

Immediately, the sapphire superwoman raised her free arm, the armor over it changing into another gun. She fired, and this weapon spat out a bolt of blue light.

Terra scrambled to dodge, but she could barely keep her balance anymore, thanks to the sonic assault she'd been enduring. The blast hit her dead on, and her world went black.

* * *

"Whew," Blue Beetle said as she looked down at her immobilized foes. "That was even worse than fighting Green Lantern. I really thought they were going to win for a while there."

_**(Yeah, they were really kicking your butt at the beginning.)**_ The scarab piped up.

"They were really kicking _our_ butt at the beginning," Blue Beetle corrected it. Then she softened. "Good work with getting past the interference. That really helped."

_**(No problem. Now what?)**_ The scarab asked.

"Now we take them to the JSSDF," Blue Beetle answered. "Hopefully, they'll talk and implicate NERV."

_**(I don't see why we can't just—)**_ The scarab abruptly stopped. _**(Ritsuko! There's someone else here!)**_

Before she could even ask where, the scarab was directing her to the proper direction. Not that it would have been difficult to spot the man; he had emerged from wherever he'd been hiding and was now standing in plain sight behind her.

_**(Nice getup.)**_ The scarab commented.

The man was clad almost entirely in black, with several bulges beneath his clothes hinting at the presence of body armor. He wore tan gloves, boots, and a mask that covered his whole head. The right side of the mask was that same tan color, while the left side was completely black and had no eye hole. An ammo belt was slung across his torso, and she could see the hilt of a sword that he had strapped to his back rising above his left shoulder.

_Scarab?_ She asked.

_**(Scanning now.)**_ It said. _**(I'm reading some strange chemicals in his body. It looks like they've enhanced his physical capabilities beyond what's possible for normal humans, but not **_**that**_** far. He shouldn't give us nearly as much trouble as the other two.)**_

_Good to know,_ she responded.

"So," she said aloud to the man, "who're you?"

"In my professional life, most people call me Deathstroke. I'm Terra and Bombshell's employer," he introduced himself, his voice cold and his demeanor completely relaxed. "I'm quite disappointed with the two of them."

Without needing to be asked, the scarab immediately connected itself to the Internet and started searching for any information on Deathstroke. _**(Nothing concrete. Just a lot of rumors.)**_ It reported. _**(Seems like the guy is some elite, high priced merc and hitman.)**_

"I don't suppose there's any chance that you'll just surrender peacefully?" Blue Beetle asked.

Deathstroke chuckled darkly. "No."

"Didn't think so," Blue Beetle replied.

She brought up her suppression rifle and fired. The distance between them was no more than a few feet, and she used the scarab's capabilities to aim and shoot faster than any ordinary human could hope to.

Deathstroke dodged the blast easily, flipping out of the way with a level of agility that would have turned Olympic gymnasts green with envy. Before Blue Beetle even realized that she'd missed, let alone fire another shot, he had unsheathed the sword he carried and swung it at her. The blade somehow managed to penetrate her armor, leaving a long cut along her arm.

"Ah!" she cried out in pain.

"First blood," Deathstroke noted, even as he went in for another attack.

Blue Beetle morphed the armor on her right arm into a blade, parrying his next attack. She brought up her left arm, which still had the suppression rifle on it and fired.

Deathstroke quickly went into a crouch, avoiding the blast, and lashed out with his foot, knocking her legs out from under her. Blue Beetle crashed to the ground, landing hard on her back.

Not wasting a second, the mercenary took hold of his sword with both hands, raising it high as he prepared to run Blue Beetle through.

_**(Oh, hell no!)**_ The scarab thought, and the jets on the bottom of Blue Beetle's boots activated, pushing her out of the way and causing her to go sliding at high speed along the ground.

Which, unfortunately, was full of rocks and debris.

_Turn it off, scarab!_ Blue Beetle demanded, feeling as though her back was being tenderized, even with the protection her armor offered her.

Immediately, the jets fell quiet. Groaning, Blue Beetle slowly got to her feet.

Only to discover that Deathstroke was standing _right in front of her_.

For a moment, Blue Beetle just blinked stupidly at the assassin, uncomprehending. Those damn jets must have sent her skidding at least a quarter of a mile in under five seconds, so how in the world did he—?

Deathstroke attacked before she could even complete the thought, firing a high powered shotgun he'd produced from somewhere at her. Blue Beetle groaned, doubling over in pain; he'd used slugs rather than buckshot, and even though they didn't manage to penetrate her armor, the damn things had hit her in the abdomen with the force of a small battering ram.

With lightning fast movements, the assassin pumped the weapon, releasing the spent shell casings, and fired again, this time hitting Blue Beetle right in the chest. She let out a cry and staggered back a step.

_Scarab, help,_ she thought desperately.

The piece of alien hardware inside her body didn't need any more invitation to jump in. Seizing control of her body, it reached out as Deathstroke prepared for a third shot, grabbing hold of the twin barrels in her left hand and crumpling them like soda cans.

Deathstroke retaliated with a knee to her gut, causing her to double over in pain. A fierce blow to her back followed, and the next thing she knew, Blue Beetle was face down on the ground.

_This shouldn't be happening,_ she thought with rising dismay. Unless the scarab's scans were seriously off, her powers far exceeded Deathstroke's own. She was stronger than he was. She was in a symbiotic relationship with an advanced alien super weapon, for god's sake! Yet he was winning—easily.

She couldn't help but feel that was terribly wrong, like the universe wasn't playing fair.

_Heh, since when has life been fair? Never,_ she thought bitterly.

_**(Um, Ritsuko, we might want to think about phasing out and leaving right now.)**_ The scarab suggested.

She was fiercely tempted to take the scarab's suggestion and just leave. She might have signed up with the JSSDF, but she had never volunteered to have her ass handed to her in this way. Besides, Deathstroke and his associates weren't Angels; it wasn't as though they'd go on some sort of killing spree if she left. They were only after her.

But if she left, she would probably never get her proof that NERV had been behind the explosion at the JSSDF base. Bringing in Deathstroke and his underlings meant she might finally be able to win her personal war against NERV. She couldn't pass that up.

For Misato, for Shinji, for everyone in the world, she had to keep fighting.

With a colossal effort, she flipped herself over and got to her feet. Deathstroke responded by grabbing a small metal baton that was clipped to his belt. The thing immediately extended, becoming more like a staff, both ends crackling with electricity.

With a grunt, he slammed one of the ends into Blue Beetle's stomach, and even her armor couldn't protect her from it. She cried out in agony as electricity swept through her body.

But she did not fall. Gritting her teeth, she reached out, grabbing hold of the staff with both hands and snapped it in two.

Deathstroke actually looked surprised.

Blue Beetle didn't give him enough time to get over it. She raised her suppression rifle and fired, hitting him right in the chest. A normal human would have been rendered instantly unconscious. Deathstroke staggered back a step, looking dazed.

It was enough. Commanding her armor to revert to its normal form, Blue Beetle punched Deathstroke, knocking him to the ground. He looked up at her, his one visible eye clouded but defiant.

_Think you can pump up the power on the suppression rifle, scarab?_ She asked. _Enough to knock even this guy out?_

_**(No problem.)**_ It replied cheerfully.

Her armor shifted back into the now familiar weapon. She took careful aim.

_**BANG**_

The sound of a gunshot erupted in the distance, and a round from a high-power sniper rifle slammed into the side of her head. It wasn't enough to kill her, but it _did_ shatter part of her helmet, leaving almost half of her face exposed.

_**(There's someone else out there!)**_ The scarab realized while Blue Beetle was still reeling.

* * *

"God damn," Ravager breathed from a hidden sniper's nest in the derelict city. "Never known Dad to need help with a single person before. This Blue Beetle is something else."

With a smirk, the assassin reloaded the gun and took aim again. "Not too much for me, though."

* * *

_**BANG**_

Deathstroke watched as another sniper shot collided with Blue Beetle, this time striking her in the shoulder and taking another portion of her armor. It would have hit her in the now exposed portion of her surprisingly pretty face and instantly killed her, but she moved at the last second.

He shook his head. The fog was clearing fast, but that blue beam weapon had all but knocked him out. Blue Beetle was certainly one of his more interesting foes.

_**BANG**_

The sapphire superwoman lost a piece of the armor on her side now, and Deathstroke scowled beneath his mask. Couldn't Ravager hit her in the same place twice?

Then Blue Beetle managed to steady herself. She gazed toward the cluster of buildings where Ravager hid, raising her arm and taking aim with the rifle on it.

It didn't look like the non-lethal one she'd spent most of the battle employing.

Despite his wooziness, Deathstroke reacted automatically. Sword in hand, he lunged at Blue Beetle.

"_Die!_" he roared.

Blue Beetle's armor was tough, but not tough enough. His sword plunged into her abdomen, going almost all the way to the hilt.

The sapphire superwoman released a wordless, strangled gasp of shock. Her exposed eye stared up at him in stunned surprise for a second before it rolled up into her head.

Deathstroke pulled the now red stained blade out of his target, allowing Blue Beetle to fall face first to the ground. A crimson puddle quickly formed beneath her.

The mercenary stood there, allowing himself a moment to recover. With the target dead, he now had that luxury.

A minute later, he heard Ravager coming up behind him. "Father, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Deathstroke replied. "We should get out of here. Terra's theatrics have no doubt gotten the military's attention. It won't be long before…what?" he asked, noticing the shocked look on Ravager's face.

Ravager raised a shaking hand, pointing. Deathstroke turned, his good eye widening.

Blue Beetle was on her feet, standing before them as though she was perfectly fine, even as her stab wound bled freely. Her eyes, both the one that was still covered by her helmet and the one that was exposed, were glowing with an electric blue light.

Deathstroke had gotten a good look at her naked eye before. It was green.

_**"You hurt her,"**_ Blue Beetle spoke, but it didn't sound like her voice anymore. The voice that now came from the armored woman's mouth was strangely androgynous, powerful, and resonant.

Alien, almost.

Deathstroke didn't hesitate. Sword in hand, he charged toward Blue Beetle, intent on piercing the woman's heart this time.

Blue Beetle raised a hand, the armor on her palm shifting into something that looked a lot like a tiny satellite dish. Tongues of electricity erupted forth from it, converging on Deathstroke. The elite mercenary cried out in pain, staggering backwards. It was an attack that would have instantly killed a normal human being.

Wordlessly, Blue Beetle raised her arm, the miniature satellite dish collapsing and folding itself back into the armor. In its place, a gun formed, one that was unlike any Deathstroke had seen her use so far.

_**"Run,"**_ Blue Beetle commanded them.

A sphere of dark blue burst forth from her weapon, flying high into the air. Deathstroke watched as it slowed, coming to a stop, and then abruptly split into about a dozen smaller spheres, which quickly started to come back down.

_"Go!"_ Deathstroke roared at Ravager. "Get Terra! I'll take Bombshell!"

He broke out into a sprint, rushing toward the silver-skinned woman. Gathering her up into his arms, he lifted her with a grunt. She was ice cold and weighed a ton, but he ignored his discomfort, running away from Blue Beetle at top speed. Out of the corner of his good eye, he could see Ravager doing the same with Terra.

The blue spheres made contact with the ground and _exploded_ with tremendous force. The slowly decaying buildings all around them started to collapse like dominoes, kicking up enormous clouds of dust and debris.

The force of the nearest explosion nearly threw him to the ground, but Deathstroke managed to keep his feet. Grimacing, he swore that he would not die at the hands of an empowered amateur like the Blue Beetle.

* * *

_**(Oh, god, Ritsuko, please be okay.)**_ The scarab said desperately as it led them back to her home, phased so that they were invisible and intangible to the rest of the world.

The blonde woman inside the armor, who was deeply unconscious and half dead, didn't reply.

_**(Don't die, damn you.)**_ The scarab commanded.

Ritsuko, of course, still stayed silent.

The scarab's scream of frustration burst forth from the sapphire superwoman's mouth. Oh, how it wanted to go back and make _sure_ that Deathstroke and his colleagues were dead. It could have cheerfully decimated the population of Nippon right then, if that was what it took to be certain those people were dead. Those people who had had the gall, the arrogance to wound its host in such a way.

It would have, too, if Ritsuko's life hadn't been rapidly ebbing away. Even now, it rushed to heal the worst of the damage, to staunch the bleeding, to slow down her bodily functions so she expired more slowly.

Unfortunately, there was a limit to the number of highly complex tasks that the scarab could perform at once. Transforming Ritsuko's somewhat out-of-shape body into a near perfect example of physical fitness had been simple enough; the blonde had been safely asleep in bed at the time, and so the scarab hadn't had to do anything else. Now, it was trying to heal her wounds while also keeping their vibrational wavelength slightly out of synch with the rest of the world and flying them home.

It needed to get them to a safe place. It needed to get them home, so it could work without worrying about those other things, not to mention keep Ritsuko still.

_**(Stay alive, Rits.)**_ It urged her. _**(I'm not meant to be a one bug act, you know. I need a partner, and you're it.)**_

After what felt like an eternity, they reached Ritsuko's home. The scarab immediately guided them into basement, where it allowed the blonde's slowly dying body to lay on the floor as it made their vibrational wavelength synch up to the rest of their reality.

Almost as an afterthought, it activated holo-Ritsuko's projector. Running that thing took only a tiny fraction of the scarab's processing power.

Then it turned to the business at hand.

_**(Don't die, Ritsuko.)**_ The scarab told its unresponsive host softly. _**(Don't die.)**_

* * *

Several hours later, a battered and bruised Deathstroke made his way to Gendo Ikari's office, now dressed in a very respectable looking business suit. He knew that, given a night's rest, he would be good as new again. Ever since he'd been injected with the experimental serum during his time in the US military, his body would recover from even the most grievous injury with a few hours of sleep.

However, he knew his team wouldn't be feeling nearly so good in the morning, with the possible exception of Bombshell. He owed it to them, and his current employer, to make this report now.

"Wilson," Gendo greeted him curtly as he approached the man's desk. Seated in a small chair off to the side, Fuyutski said nothing.

"My team and I confronted the Blue Beetle earlier today," Slade Wilson said.

"So I gathered," Gendo replied, obviously having heard about the coastal ruins which had been reduced to so much rubbles by their battle. "Is she dead?"

"I do not believe so, no," Slade answered.

Gendo's brow twitched. It was almost imperceptible; most people wouldn't have noticed it, but, of course, Slade Wilson was not most people. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Quickly, Slade gave him an overview of the battle, describing in detail how he had run through Blue Beetle with a sword, only for her to get up and unleash a devastating attack.

"I will get her," Slade vowed. "For now, though, I thought you might appreciate some footage we took from the battle." He held up a zip drive.

Gendo wordlessly accepted it and plugged into his computer. A hidden panel on the side of the wall slid out of place, revealing a large screen behind it.

Slade waited patiently as Gendo reviewed the footage, his expression never changing.

Until they reached the part where Ravager's first bullet blew away part of Blue Beetle's helmet, then Ikari's eyes widened slightly.

He stopped the recording. "Mr. Wilson, your services are no longer required," he said.

"What?" Slade demanded.

"I do not want Blue Beetle killed any longer," Gendo answered. "I have other plans for her now. However, your efforts have been very helpful to me, so I will pay the rest of your fee."

"Very well, then," Slade grunted, surprised and somewhat disappointed.

He had wanted a rematch with the Blue Beetle, but it was best not to let personal desires get in the way of work.

"That will be all," Gendo said.

With a brief, polite nod, Slade turned and walked out of the room.

"Ikari, what are you playing at?" Fuyutski asked once the two men were alone again.

"You recognized the Blue Beetle's face, didn't you?" Gendo asked, giving his former teacher a shrewd look.

"Yes, I did," the older man confessed. "Though I'm not sure I believe my eyes."

Gendo just grunted, smirking very slightly.

"But even if Dr. Akagi _is_ the Blue Beetle, I don't see why you dismissed Wilson like that," Fuyutski continued, actually saying the scientist's name with the greatest reluctance. "After all, wouldn't you still want her…?"

Gendo shook his head. All these years by his side, and Fuyutski still hadn't learned the finer points of scheming. "Why should I destroy something I am able to control?"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Well, here's hoping I did justice to Deathstroke. He's one of those characters who, on paper, is not really very powerful by the standards of the DCU, yet people are terrified of the guy anyway. He's like an evil Captain America, really.

Anyway, I'm not sure if we'll be seeing more of him or not. Gendo might commission him again if events in the near future don't go as he expects, or a new threat may appear instead.

Thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


	12. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Eleven:** Recovery Time

Ritsuko Akagi lay on the cold floor of her basement, caught in a twilight state between life and death.

The scarab, the alien organism which had embedded itself in her back and formed a symbiotic relationship with her, was working frantically to repair the damage that Deathstroke had inflicted upon her, but it was a difficult struggle.

True, it had performed extensive alterations to her body before, giving her the physique of a professional athlete and removing years' worth of tar from her lungs in the course of a single night, but that had been different. Ritsuko hadn't been clinging to life then. Now, the scarab had to both keep her from dying and repair the damage at the same time. Even for such a mind bogglingly sophisticated device, this kind of multitasking was a bit more difficult than trying to walk and chew gum at once. It was more on par with trying to drive a car at top speed while rewiring the radio at the same time.

The slightest mistake could result in disaster.

So it moved as slowly and carefully as its task would allow it to, toiling for hours on its badly wounded host.

For her own part, Ritsuko remained mercifully unconscious through the entire process, oblivious to the passage of time or the pain that would be wracking her body if she was awake to experience it.

Instead of suffering through all of that, Ritsuko dreamed.

* * *

She dreamed that she was no longer in her armor and was standing in the middle of a ruined city, very much like the one where she had recently faced Deathstroke and his allies. However, she had no memory of that brutal confrontation at the moment. In fact, she found she had very little memory at all as she wandered aimlessly through the ruined city.

Cresting a hill, she found herself with a view of the ocean. The once greenish blue waters ran red, and she knew that was a bad thing, a very bad thing. She just couldn't quite remember why, for some reason.

"Ritsuko."

She turned at the sound of the weak voice calling her name, then gasped in horror at what she saw.

A great spire of crystal—which she would have _sworn_ hadn't been there a minute ago—jutted out of the ruined street, and caught within it was none other than Shinji Ikari. The EVA pilot's hands and feet were covered in more of the crystal, and the stuff was growing fast. Pretty soon, his entire body would be cocooned in the material, and he would suffocate.

She didn't quite recall why the sight of someone trapped in crystal like that was so strangely familiar, or why, for that matter, she found it so intensely disturbing. All she knew was that she had to help him.

"Shinji!" she called. "I'm coming!"

She started to run toward the translucent spire, not knowing how she could possibly hope to free Shinji, who was suspended high above her head. All she knew was that she needed to get to him as soon as possible.

She had almost reached him when something, or, more accurately, _someone_, abruptly blocked her path, seemingly appearing from nowhere.

Ritsuko swallowed. Gendo Ikari stood before her, but it wasn't Gendo Ikari as she knew him. The man _towered_ above her, standing at least twenty feet tall.

If the blonde had been more cognizant of reality at the moment, she would have been only too aware of the fact that what she was seeing was totally impossible, that Gendo simply _couldn't_ have grown to such a size. However, she was lost in a dream, where the Commander's improbable height seemed only appropriate. He had always come off as larger than life to her, both when she'd been infatuated with him, and even more so when their relationship had taken a darker turn.

"You can't change anything," Gendo informed her in a cold, flat voice. It sounded like he was stating a fact that was obviously self-evident, and that she was stupid not to have seen it. "You can save no one. Everything you and everything you attempt is ultimately _meaningless_."

"He's right, you know," another voice added, and suddenly Naoko Akagi stood next to Gendo.

She was equally as huge as Gendo, which Ritsuko also found appropriate in its own way, while not wondering how her dead mother could be present. Naoko's ghost had loomed large in Ritsuko's life ever since the woman had died. The younger Dr. Akagi had once thought that admitting to herself she despised the woman would somehow free her from that influence, but it had never come to be. Privately, a large part of Ritsuko feared that it never _would_ happen.

Naoko smiled condescendingly at Ritsuko. It was an expression her mother had directed at her so _many_ times in the past, and the blonde found that it still had the power to make her blood boil.

"You were always so afraid of being just like me," she said. "You tried to be different in such petty little ways. Dying your hair. Becoming friends with that whore Katsuragi when I told you not to. But in the end, you went to my old school to study computer sciences. You went to work at NERV. And you started sleeping with Gendo Ikari. You're _just like me_, and you'll have a death just as ugly and meaningless as mine was."

"No!" Ritsuko exclaimed, but she immediately felt like a mewling and petulant child in the face of the two giants before her.

Gendo didn't dignify her defiant yell with a response. At least, he didn't dignify it with a verbal response. Instead, he reached out with an impossibly long arm, as though to strike her. Ritsuko yelped in fear and stumbled backwards, avoiding the blow but falling and landing on her rear end.

Her mother and the Commander immediately rounded on her, clearly wanting to get her before she could regain her feet. Not that they needed to hurry; the sight of the two giants rushing toward her was more than enough to leave her paralyzed with fear.

They were almost upon her when a beam of blue light struck the ground between Ritsuko and her two attackers, putting another hole into the already battered asphalt.

The blonde looked up, her eyes widening when she saw the Blue Beetle descending toward her. The azure superwoman's eyes were glowing an electric blue, quite unlike the usual red of the lenses.

"Stay away from her!" Blue Beetle yelled in an eerie, almost toneless voice.

Ritsuko's mind might've been more than a little scattered at the moment, but she was still lucid enough to remember that _she_ was the Blue Beetle. So did that mean…?

"Scarab?" she asked softly.

Blue Beetle turned and grinned cheekily at her. "In the exoskeleton," it said. "You don't think I would ever really abandon you, do you?"

Ritsuko smiled. "No, I guess not."

Naoko suddenly made a swipe for Blue Beetle, clearly intending to crush the armored superwoman flat, but her target was far too nimble. Blue Beetle dodged easily, then her body glowed and shrank in size, transforming back into the scarab. As Ritsuko watched, the alien life form flew through the air toward her, coming in for a landing on the small of her back. The armor seemed to grow out of the scarab, and in seconds, Ritsuko found herself once more clad in the armor of the Blue Beetle.

Gendo lunged at her, but Blue Beetle easily flew out of his grip, soaring upwards until she was eye level with her mother.

"Listen to me," Blue Beetle said as Naoko glowered at her. "I may be like you in a lot of ways. I am your daughter, so that's just to be expected. But I'm _different_ in some important aspects, too."

"Like how?" Naoko snarled.

"For one thing, when _you_ realized that Gendo saw you as tool instead of a lover, you snapped and killed the damn messenger," Blue Beetle spat. "When _I_ figured it out, I decided to do something more constructive about it."

"Constructive," Gendo mocked her, getting to his feet. "You have no chance of ruining my scenario, and you know it."

Blue Beetle shook her head. "Your precious scenario is teetering on the brink, and I'm going to give it a good shove," she said. "In all your plans, you never anticipated something like the scarab showing up. As long as I've got him backing me up, I can win. I can beat you."

Both Gendo and Naoko glared at her, but neither offered any sort of argument against that.

Blue Beetle raised her arm, the armor shifting until it formed a wicked looking cannon. Definitely not the suppression rifle.

"Now get the hell out of my way," she commanded, "or else."

Gendo and Naoko looked just a bit intimidated by that, and back in the real world outside Ritsuko's dreams, the blonde smiled ever so slightly.

* * *

Unfortunately for Ritsuko, the real world Gendo Ikari was not like his dream counterpart; despite having made the discovery that his Project-E chairperson was the Blue Beetle, the Commander of NERV remained quite unafraid of her.

However, though his stony visage didn't show it, just because he was feeling fear didn't mean he was experiencing no emotions at all. Quite the opposite in fact; a heady brew of emotions was currently churning inside him.

Anger that Ritsuko would _dare_ to betray him. Anger at himself for having written off the signs that the scientist was up to something. Yet also…excitement. Now that he knew who the Blue Beetle was, he could _use_ her, force her to aid his scenario rather than tear it down.

At least, he could if he could figure out a few things first. In the days since Deathstroke and his team had confronted the Blue Beetle, he had applied his time and energy toward doing just that.

The door to his cavernous office opened, and Fuyutski stepped inside. "You wanted to see me?" the older man grunted.

"Indeed," was Gendo's curt response.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Fuyutski walked over to Gendo's desk and sat in the uncomfortable chair positioned next to it. "And?" he prompted.

"You saw the recording Mr. Wilson provided me with," Gendo began, "and you reached the same conclusion that I did, correct?" he asked.

"That it was Ritsuko Akagi's face behind the Blue Beetle's mask?" Fuyutski asked impatiently. For one who came off as so cold and distant, Gendo had an obnoxious love of being dramatic. "Yes."

Gendo nodded. "I am pleased you agree with me," he said. "However, there is the fact that Dr. Akagi's whereabouts were very much accounted for during several of the appearances that the Blue Beetle made."

Fuyutski nodded. "Yes. She was right before our eyes during a few of those appearances, if I recall correctly," he said. "Yet you clearly haven't decided that Ritsuko Akagi and the Blue Beetle are two separate people."

"Indeed, the evidence that the two are the same person was too strong to simply dismiss," Gendo agreed. "Though I must admit that I did have some difficulty solving this particular riddle."

"Do you intend to get to the point soon, Ikari?" Fuyutski asked, finally allowing his impatience to show.

Fortunately, Gendo didn't seem to mind. "I recently had a number of the regular security cameras around Dr. Akagi's office and Tech Division One's labs replaced with more specialized recording devices. Take a look at what the infrared camera saw when pointed in her direction."

He pressed a button on his desk, and a hidden panel in the wall opened, revealing a large screen, which quickly came to life, showing a rather blurry image of the hallway outside Akagi's office in a dark blue. A moment later, two figures entered the shot. The shorter one of the pair, which Fuyutski assumed was Lieutenant Ibuki, was lit up in shades of orange and red—exactly what one would expect a person to look like in an infrared view.

Ritsuko, on the other hand, was barely distinguishable from her surroundings, cast in light blues with the occasional trace of green. Only at her feet was there a spot of red.

Fuyutski frowned. "Why does she look that?"

"A good question," Gendo said, "and one I posed to an expert in NERV Security. He told me he believes that Dr. Akagi wasn't there at all. It was a hologram in her place, and the red object by her feet is the likely the projector."

"You can't be serious," Fuyutski scoffed.

"And why not?" Gendo challenged. "Blue Beetle has given highly advanced technology to the JSSDF. What makes the idea of her having used some herself so preposterous? And in any case, do you have an alternate explanation for the miniscule amount of body heat Dr. Akagi is emitting in this image?"

Fuyutski had to admit he did not. "So, how often has…the hologram," his tone of voice made it obvious that he remained skeptical of the idea, "substituted for Dr. Akagi?"

"Overall, that is currently impossible to determine, as the infrared cameras are new additions to the base," Gendo answered. "However, since their installation, it seems that the real Dr. Akagi has not come to headquarters once."

"Blue Beetle hasn't been spotted since her run in with Deathstroke, either," Fuyutski noted grimly. "Do you suppose he…killed her, Ikari?"

"Possible," Gendo said, as though speculating on whether or not it would rain the next day. "However, I doubt it. If she's already dead, there's no need to maintain the facade."

"I assume you already checked to see if she was admitted to any of the local hospitals," Fuyutski said.

Gendo nodded. "No one checked in under her name, and there are no Jane Doe's matching her description," he said. "If she's gone somewhere to recover, it wasn't a hospital."

"The most logical place would be her home," Fuyutski mused. "It might seem too obvious, but…"

"She wouldn't have time to worry about finding a good hiding place, yes," Gendo agreed. "Seeing as how the hologram is currently on the clock, I've sent someone from Section Two to investigate her home. If we're lucky, we'll catch her when she's vulnerable."

"And if we're not?" Fuyutski asked.

"I have other plans in motion," Gendo motioned.

"Well, you seem to have all the bases covered, Ikari," the Vice Commander said. "So what did you need me for?" he huffed.

"I find it useful to discuss my plans at times," Gendo answered.

* * *

"And everyone thought that this thing was done for," General Katsuro said as he gazed at his latest project.

As a direct result of NERV's star dimming, the JSSDF's special anti-Angel taskforce had gained significantly more funding than it had had previously. Katsuro could have easily ordered that the money be used to buy them more of the BVG313 attack planes and similar hardware. Yet while a large chunk of their funds _were_ now earmarked for replacing the equipment and vehicles lost when the Auxiliary Air Base had exploded, Katsuro had ultimately opted against merely expanding their force beyond what they'd had before.

Instead, he'd decided on doing something a little bit grander.

His moment of introspection was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Dr. Endo, who was looking more than a little dazed and confused.

"I called for you almost twenty minutes ago," Katsuro said.

"Uh, sorry, General," the scientist stammered. "It's just that this place is so damn _big_."

Katsuro gave Endo a look. "Are you serious?"

True, by volume, the secret facility _was_ large. However, the whole place was really just a big pit in the ground, with the project in the center. He would've liked something larger, but it would be a _long_ time before the JSSDF would have their own Geofront, even assuming a string of continued successes. The individual floors weren't very large.

"Of course I'm serious," Endo replied, indignant.

Katsuro shook his head. "I want a status report on the project."

Endo nodded. "Of course," he said, adjusting his glasses. "As you know, we remain in the very early stages. However, the fact that this is really more of an extensive retrofit than a construction project from the ground up reduces the time involved substantially. The original structure was found to be quite sound—"

"Given how new it is, it had damned well better be," Katsuro grumbled.

"—so delays on that front were minimal," Endo continued without missing a beat. "Yet given how extensive the upgrade is, and the sheer scale involved, it's still going to take some time."

Katsuro grunted an acknowledgment. "And is everything in line with the simulations so far?"

Endo nodded. "Yes," he answered. "So far, it does indeed look like the sheer scale of this thing will make it possible for it to penetrate an AT field."

Katsuro smiled. He had once said that the JSSDF had no choice but to trust that the Blue Beetle would continue to come when they called her, because the alternative was failing to get back into the war, which was likely to lead to a slow and inglorious end for their branch of the service. However, that didn't mean he _wanted_ to rely on a masked woman who refused to tell him her name.

Soon, he wouldn't have to anymore.

"General," Endo said, jarring him from his thoughts. "Would I be…out of line if I spoke freely for a moment?"

"Yes, but go ahead and do it anyway," Katsuro grunted.

"The military already spent a lot of money on this thing," Endo said, "and you know only too well how _that_ went. If a second attempt to use this thing ends in disaster, the consequences…"

"Would only affect me, and the JSSDF," Katsuro cut him off. "You will be fine. The JSDF will find some use for you."

"I'm aware of that," Endo said. "You and the JSSDF are what I'm worried about."

"Your concern is touching," Katsuro said dryly. "But I knew that saving the JSSDF would require a few big gambles. Even one as big as the Jet Alone."

He looked out again at the massive robot, which was in the process of being reborn as the Blue Behemoth. Already almost half of the yellow armor plates had been replaced by much stronger blue and black ones. Under the hood, far more changes were taking place.

Once it was completed, they'd have a chance of defeating the Angels even if the Blue Beetle abandoned them. With such a powerful weapon at their disposal, the JSSDF would never be relegated to second string status again.

Now if only he could get the techs to stop referring to their new super weapon as the "Jet Blue" robot…

* * *

As a member of NERV's Section Two, Sato was only too well aware of the reputation his department had gotten for itself.

He knew that most people thought that Section Two was little more than a band of thugs in suits, ostensibly existing to protect important NERV personnel (such as the pilots), but really there in case the Commander needed some dirty work done. He also knew that most of NERV thought that the vast bulk of Section Two's members were complete idiots.

Sato knew people thought all these things. Moreover, he knew that they were right. Section Two _was_ there for when Gendo Ikari needed someone roughed up or disappeared, and by and large, the organization was comprised mainly of stupid thugs.

It was hard to find good help these days. Even so many years after the Impact Wars, men with military training and no scruples remained in high demand around the globe.

Yet despite all of this, Section Two _did_ have some highly competent individuals working for it. Captain Chiron, the Section Chief, was one of them. Sato was another.

Sure, he could've made more money elsewhere, but he was a man of modest desires. And frankly, he did not want to go live in a Third World hellhole and help prop up some tin pot dictator's regime, regardless of how much money was in it for him. Better by far to live in some place like Japan.

His duties for the day were proof enough of that. Aside from having to stand around and look intimidating for a bit later on, all he had to do was check Dr. Akagi's residence.

_Screw retiring at forty,_ he thought as he pulled up to the house in question. _If people are willing to pay me for this, I have no problem working 'til I'm a lot older than that. Least this way I'll actually make it to my golden years._

Getting out of his car, he approached Akagi's residence, still not entirely understanding his assignment. Oh, he knew enough to carry it out, but he didn't quite get _why_ he'd been ordered to do it.

As near as he'd been able to gather from the short briefing Chiron had given him, the Commander had reason to suspect that Akagi was doing something she shouldn't be. Said she was moonlighting somehow, or something. The really weird part was that she apparently had some kind of body double, who was going to NERV in her place, thus giving Akagi the time to do…whatever it was she was doing.

A year ago, he would've scoffed at the whole story. However, Tokyo-3 had become a place where science fiction was reality, so he was a little more inclined to give the Commander the benefit of the doubt.

Strangest of all, the Commander for some reason thought that Akagi would be at home at that very minute, and Sato could catch her red-handed.

It was a bizarre situation, but his orders to break into the house, search for Akagi, and report back on his findings were as simple as could be, so he wasn't about to complain.

Reaching the front door, Sato put a hand into his pocket and withdrew a pair of long, thin wires. His childhood on the streets might've been several years behind him, but there was no way a simple lock was going to stop him. He stuck the wires into the keyhole, and only seconds later, the tumblers turned. Even if one of the neighbors had been watching, he hadn't been at it long enough to look suspicious.

Opening the door, he walked inside, alert but not particularly anxious. He certainly wasn't afraid of Akagi, even if she was at home and did catch him intruding. His only real concern had been that she might have a dog or something, but no barks had greeted his entrance.

_Now, where are you?_ He wondered, looking around and deciding that it was a pretty nice place, if a bit austere. It was pretty much what he'd expect of an ice queen like Akagi, really.

Going upstairs, he checked the rooms one by one, making a point of investigating every closet and potential hiding place closely.

That included the good doctor's dresser drawers, even though, if he was being honest with himself, he knew that they were all too small for an adult to even fit inside. He was just feeling nosey, and no one had ever said that he wasn't allowed to enjoy his work.

Finally satisfied that the top floor was empty, he went back down and searched the ground floor extensively. Once again, he discovered nothing out of the ordinary and certainly no blond scientist.

_Just the basement, then,_ he thought, already wondering how he was going to tell Ikari that he'd been wrong and no one was in the Akagi residence but him.

He reached for the doorknob, but the basement door swung inwards before he could touch it, and Sato jumped back, caught off guard.

"Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?" Misato Katsuragi demanded.

For a moment, Sato just blinked stupidly at the Ops Director, completely blindsided by her appearance. She was dressed in plainclothes, rather than her uniform, which was definitely a good thing from his perspective; it meant she (probably) didn't have her gun on her. However, the glare she was directing at him was still very intimidating, despite that.

"Well?" she demanded when he remained silent. "Answer me. Who are you?"

"Uh, I'm Sato, with Section Two," he blurted out. "What are you doing here?"

"_I_ am a friend of Ritsuko's," Katsuragi said haughtily. "She asked me to come over and do a little errand for her while she's out."

"Oh," Sato said, his voice hollow.

Damn, this was bad, he realized as his brain slowly shifted back into gear. He'd only expected to run into Akagi, if anyone. The leader of Tech Div One had no direct influence over Section Two or any personnel outside her department at all, so there was little danger in pissing her off, especially since he was running an errand for the Commander.

Katsuragi, however, was a very different story. Her authority was much broader, and the mutual animosity between her and Chiron was legendary around NERV. She was an old hand at making the lives of Section Two agents miserable.

"And what are _you_ doing here?" she snapped.

He almost told her, then he realized that there was a very good chance the Commander would want to deny any involvement with this intrusion into Dr. Akagi's home.

"Uh…well, I….you see…" he stammered, at a complete loss for any sort of vaguely believable lie.

"Never mind," Katsuragi cut him off. "It's not like you'd tell me the truth anyway."

Sato tried not to look as grateful as he felt.

"Just get out," Katsuragi said. "Right now. If I ever catch you around here again, I'm going to have you thrown into a holding cell at NERV and let you rot there until the new year. Got that?"

"Yes, ma'am," Sato answered at once, then wasted no time in making his retreat.

He fervently hoped that Katsuragi forgot his name before Akagi realized he'd gone riffling through the blonde's underwear drawer.

* * *

The moment the Section Two chucklehead closed the door behind himself, Misato rushed over to the window and peeked out through the curtains. The black suit made his way to an equally black sedan and climbed inside, quickly driving away. Misato waited by her post for a few minutes after he'd gone, half expecting him to simply loop around the block and come back.

When there was no sign that he planned to return, she turned and descended into the basement again.

"Is he gone?" Ritsuko asked.

"Yeah, he's gone," Misato sighed. "I don't think he's planning to come back, but it's impossible to say for sure."

Ritsuko nodded silently. Though she'd no longer been on the edge of death when Misato had found her, the blonde had definitely still seen better days. Her face was extremely pale, and she had told Misato that she needed to remain clad in the armor from the neck down for a while yet. Misato had retrieved some pillows from upstairs and used them to prop her friend up into a sitting position, and Ritsuko had winced and grimaced through the entire process. The Ops Director didn't dare move the scientist again.

"You're damned lucky I happened to come along, you know that?" Misato scolded. "He would've come here and caught you, otherwise."

"Yeah," Ritsuko admitted. "The scarab's a little too preoccupied to hide me right now."

"I figured."

"Why did you come here, anyway?" Ritsuko asked. "Not that I'm complaining, of course." She quickly added.

"Did you forget that my ring can tell the different between holo-you and the real you?" Misato asked, holding up her hand and allowing the band of green metal on her middle finger to shimmer into visibility. "When you didn't show up for a work for a few days straight, I got worried and came looking for you."

"You're a good friend, Misato," Ritsuko said softly.

"Thank you," the Ops Director said, then crossed her arms over her chest. "But don't expect me to go easy on you just because you said that."

Ritsuko smiled weakly up at her friend. Since she was standing, the Ops Director quite towered over her. "Why Misato, what do you mean?"

Misato rolled her eyes. "You're supposed to be a genius, and you have to ask that?"

"I never claimed to be a genius…"

"You almost got killed!"

"I know," Ritsuko said, pressing her hands over her still injured gut. Or trying to, anyway. The armor kind of got in the way. "Believe me, it's a little difficult to forget right now."

The purple-haired woman's gaze softened, and she squatted down so she was eye level with the blonde. "I really wish you'd tell me what you're up to. You've been playing with fire a lot recently, and you finally got burned," she said gently. "This team of assassins was serious."

"You're telling me," Ritsuko agreed.

"But what's worse is that the Commander seems to be on to you," Misato continued. "That idiot wouldn't have shown up unless Ikari was at least suspicious."

"I know. I'll really have to be careful in the future," Ritsuko said.

Misato gave her a look. "You're not planning on stopping, are you?"

"I can't," Ritsuko said.

The Ops Director sighed. "Fine. We've had this argument too many times for me to try again," she said, standing up straight and moving to leave.

"Misato, wait," Ritsuko said.

"Yes?"

"Could you stay here for a while?" Ritsuko asked. "The scarab says it should have me back on my feet in an hour or two. I really don't want to be alone until then."

"Yeah," Misato said with a small smile. "All right."

The Ops Director grabbed the stool Ritsuko used when she was laboring at her workbench, sitting next to her friend, and for the next hour and a half, the pair made a point of talking about everything _but_ Ritsuko's superwoman activities.

The blonde quickly found herself growing wistful. It had been a long time, she realized, since she'd simply sat around to shoot the breeze with a friend. Even before she'd become the Blue Beetle, her hectic work schedule at NERV (not to mention her secretive relationship with Gendo Ikari), had kept her from getting much socialization.

It almost made her sad when the pain started to ebb, and she could move without aggravating her now nonexistent stab wound.

Almost.

"All better?" Misato asked as she helped her friend to her feet.

"I'm definitely not all better," Ritsuko said, "but I'm functional again, at least. Thanks."

"Welcome."

An awkward silence descended between the two, and Ritsuko was more than a little grateful when the scarab interrupted, informing her that the "blue phone" was ringing.

"Sorry, I have to take this," Ritsuko told Misato, and a moment later, the helmet materialized over her head. "Blue Beetle here."

"Beetle, this is Katsuro," the voice of the general replied. "We've got a situation here."

"And what would that be?" she asked.

He told her.

"I'm on my way," Blue Beetle said at once, cutting the connection.

"You can't be serious," Misato said incredulously. "You were half dead less than three hours ago. What the hell is so important that you have to rush off to deal with it now?"

Before Ritsuko could answer, Misato's cell phone went off. Not her personal phone, the NERV-issued one. And just like that, she knew why her friend was ready to rush back into danger.

The Fifteenth Angel was coming.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Poor Ritsuko, there are people plotting left and right, and she has only the vaguest idea about it. Next up, the Fifteenth Angel.

Nothing else to say here, so thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

* * *

Movie Madness

Opening the door, he walked inside, alert but not particularly anxious. He certainly wasn't afraid of Akagi, even if she was at home and did catch him intruding. His only real concern had been that she might have a dog or something, but no barks had greeted his entrance.

_Now, where are you?_ He wondered, looking around and deciding that it was a pretty nice place, if a bit austere. It was pretty much what he'd expect of an ice queen like Akagi, really.

Going upstairs, he checked the rooms one by one, making a point of investigating every closet and potential hiding place closely.

That included the good doctor's dresser drawers, even though, if he was being honest with himself, he knew that they were all too small for an adult to even fit inside. He was just feeling nosey, and no one had ever said that he wasn't allowed to enjoy his work.

_White cotton. How boring. Figured her for the black leather, whips, and chains type,_ he thought. Then he spotted…something at the back of the drawer. _Hello, what's this?_

He reached for it.

SNAP!

"_Ahh!_" Sato howled in surprise and pain as the mousetrap snapped shut on his fingers.

Eventually prying the damn thing off, and coming to the conclusion that Akagi was a crazy, paranoid bitch, Sato decided it was time for him to leave. He departed the bedroom and headed for the stairs…only to step on the strategically placed marbles made of clear glass that he'd somehow missed earlier. With a cry, he went tumbling down the stairs.

When he reached the bottom, a bucket suspended from the ceiling was overturned by some unseen mechanism, dumping a black viscous liquid onto Sato, along with a great mass of white feathers.

"That's it!" he exclaimed, slowly and painfully getting to his feet. "I'm getting the hell out of here!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Ritsuko sat in the basement, viewing everything with the elaborate surveillance system she had installed into her home.

_**(See?)**_ The scarab said smugly. _**(I TOLD you those traps would be a good idea. And you said that that movie was stupid!)**_

Ritsuko just sighed. "I never should've let me talk me into watching _Home Alone…_"


	13. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve:** Déjà Vu

Flying through the air above Tokyo-3, Blue Beetle took a moment to assess her current situation.

Gendo Ikari seemed to at least suspect that Ritsuko Akagi and the Blue Beetle were one and the same, which would inevitably bring enormous problems for her down the road unless she could convince him otherwise. She had recently almost died at the hands of some kind of super assassin, and while the scarab had managed to patch her back up, she still felt weak and her entire body hurt.

That last part wouldn't have been a problem, except the Fifteenth Angel just _had_ to choose that moment to appear, and the JSSDF had summoned her to stop it. So it looked like she was on her way to fight a battle with the odds stacked very heavily against her, and even if she won, she'd no doubt be feeling it tomorrow.

_**(So, business as usual, then.)**_ The scarab summed up.

Despite herself, Blue Beetle cracked a smile at that.

"It's funny because it's true," she remarked.

_**(The general's on the line for you.)**_ The scarab informed her.

"Put him on," she replied.

"Beetle, this is Katsuro," the general's gruff voice sounded in her ear. "The satellite network has detected the Angel in geosynchronous orbit over Toyko-3."

_Outer space. Awesome, _Blue Beetle and the scarab thought simultaneously, the former with exasperation and the latter with excitement.

"Yes, I'm picking it up with my suit's sensors," Blue Beetle said as the scarab brought an image of it up on her HUD. "Looks like a new type of Angel." She added worriedly as she studied the glowing crystalline wings.

"Which means we have no idea what form its attack will take," Katsuro agreed. "And of course the damn thing has just been holding position so far. Even our most advanced hardware can't hope to hit a target up there."

"That's where you're wrong, General," Blue Beetle said with as much bravado as she could muster, even while she silently wished that she could just go home, lay down, and maybe nap for a few hours. "I can get to that thing."

"I was hoping you'd say that," Katsuro said with obvious satisfaction.

"What the story down there, though?" Blue Beetle asked. "Who's in command of this battle?"

"Right now, NERV has operational control," Katsuro said, and the sapphire superwoman swore that she could _hear_ him scowl. "But frankly, I don't give a damn. If you can engage and destroy that thing, then you do it. Now."

"Planning on asking for forgiveness instead of permission?" Blue Beetle surmised. "That's a risky move, General."

"Only if you don't manage to destroy that Angel," he retorted. "Regardless of what Ikari might be telling his superiors, NERV doesn't have anything that can destroy a hardened target that high up, either. Unless of course they've got some kind of god damn super weapon we don't know about."

Blue Beetle only barely managed to stop herself from telling him that NERV had no such thing. No doubt he'd have some uncomfortable questions for her if he realized that she knew more about what NERV did and did not have at its disposal than _he_ did.

"I'm on my way," she said, terminating the call. "Scarab, punch it."

_**(You got it.)**_ The scarab replied eagerly.

The jets on the bottom of her boots flared with greater intensity, and thunder without lightning rumbled through the sky as the Blue Beetle quickly broke the sound barrier and only kept accelerating.

The woman inside the blue and black armor grimaced. Normally, she could withstand the G-forces of the scarab's top speed easily enough, but with her whole body still suffering the effects of Deathstroke's nearly lethal attack, every fiber of her being was protesting the acceleration.

_Oh, this is not a good sign,_ she thought, wondering what it would be like when she actually started fighting.

_**(Don't worry, Ritsuko, I'll make sure you hold together.)**_ The scarab reassured her, even as its eagerness for violence and combat shone through clearly across their mental link.

"Good, because right now I feel like there's nothing but chewing gum and paperclips keeping me in once piece," she replied.

The scarab replied with the mental equivalent of a chuckle.

Then Blue Beetle pieced the layer of storm clouds that blanketed the Tokyo-3 area, steely gray giving way to the perfect, endless blue of the clear sky. Only moments after that, the blue gave way to the diamond studded blackness of outer space.

Unable to resist, the sapphire superwoman spared a moment to turn and look back at the Earth, gasping as she took in the great blue sphere beneath her. It was amazingly beautiful, much more so than any mere satellite image could ever hope to convey.

_We have to save it,_ she thought solemnly as she turned her gaze back to infinite void of space.

Difficult though it was to believe, Blue Beetle couldn't initially spot the giant crystalline monster floating in the darkness right away; it was still hundreds of kilometers away from her and was little more than another pinprick of light against the blackness.

Fortunately, her armor's many sensors had little difficulty detecting their foe. With a thought, Blue Beetle brought the Angel's image back up on her HUD as she approached it. It was hard to deny that the thing was beautiful, but all the sapphire superwoman saw when she gazed at its luminous crystalline form was one dangerous question mark.

"Scarab, any clue on what this one does yet?" she asked.

_**(Not yet, but I'm analyzing it as quickly as I can.)**_ The scarab replied. _**(By the way, Unit Two is setting up one big freaking positron gun back in Tokyo-3.)**_

"No surprise there," Blue Beetle said, knowing that even the biggest gun NERV possessed would never be able to break through an AT field at such long range. "We should be able to just ignore them. The odds of them hitting us are miniscule." She looked ahead again, seeing that the Angel was close enough to observe with the naked eye now. "All right, time to do this. Scarab, give me a ludicrously destructive gun. I want to finish this in one shot and go home."

_**(You got it, Ritsuko.)**_ The scarab replied with obvious relish.

They didn't need to worry about damaging their surroundings up _here_, after all.

The chunk of alien hardware in her in back briefly took control of her arms, drawing them together, and the armor on them merged into one piece, holding them in that position. More metal sprouted from the gauntlets, and it occurred to Blue Beetle that the whole process looked almost organic in nature.

Except that when it was done she didn't have a flower, instead she had a firearm that was nearly as large as she was.

_I really do need to ask the scarab where all this mass comes from,_ she mused to herself, even as took aim at the Angel with the aid of a targeting reticule that had popped up onto her HUD.

A loud beep let her know that she'd gotten a lock.

_**(Charging Ragnarok Cannon.)**_ The scarab announced, trying to sound professional but actually coming off more like a kid excited to go on a fast amusement park ride. _**(Firing in three…two…)**_

The scarab never reached "one".

A bright beam of pink light burst forth from the Angel just then, illuminating a tiny portion of the blackness of space and washing over the Blue Beetle.

The effect of the Angel's attack hit the scarab just an instant before it got to the woman it was bonded with, and she was treated to the "sound" of its mental screams ringing inside her skull.

She didn't even have enough time to feel anything other than surprise and the beginnings of alarm in response before the Angel got to her, too, and suddenly she wasn't in outer space any longer.

* * *

She was in her rocky home, cheerfully going about her work for the day. New tunnels needed to be dug out, because the size of the Hive would be increasing soon.

She was looking forward to the Hive's expansion, because more voices being added to the collective mind was always good. However, the actual task of making the tunnels was difficult; her pincers could barely penetrate the hard stone at all. Yet she and dozens of her fellows continued to toil away, all of them sharing the knowledge that this was necessary for the Hive.

It was nearly time for her rest cycle when the stone above her rumbled ominously. She and all her fellows looked up, confusion and fear pulsing across their shared thoughts and then spreading to the rest of the Hive. None of them had any idea why the roof of the chamber should be shifting like that. They had studied it and found this section of their home to be completely stable.

_**(Flee.)**_ They all agreed.

Moving as though they were separate parts of the same being, they formed an orderly line, insectoid legs skittering across cold stone, and headed for deeper into the tunnel.

Only a few of them managed to get to safety before the roof completely came off the chamber, exposing them to the vacuum of space.

They didn't need to breathe in order to survive, and their species had long ago adapted to the harsh cold and merciless radiation to be found in space, but the sudden decompression tore them all out of their home and sent them spiraling helplessly into the infinite blackness beyond the safety of their rocky dwelling.

For a moment, she and all her fellows who had been pulled out into the void along with her thought that they were doomed to drift listlessly until they starved. The entire Hive despaired, because the lost of any of their number always diminished the Hive as a whole.

Then her body, which was lazily spinning end over end in the null gravity, turned in such a way that she found herself staring at a figure clad in blue and black armor from head to toe.

The armor looked familiar somehow, but she couldn't comprehend why; none of the members of the Hive had any memories of ever seeing such a strange creature before.

Nevertheless, the sight of the being, which had probably been responsible for the remove of the roof in part of their home, filled her and all her fellows with fear. Her six legs twitched wildly as she tried to direct her movement, all to no avail.

Then the creature grabbed her, and she almost fit right in the palm of its huge hand. She tried harder than ever to escape, but the strange monster held her with inexorable strength.

The creature brought its free hand toward her, and its fingertip started to glow with a malevolent blue light. Panic spurred her to struggle all the more fiercely, even though she and all the rest of the Hive knew it was futile.

There was a flash of turquoise light, accompanied by an _explosion _of pain that made her writhe in pure agony.

As the agony slowly subsided, she became aware of the ringing silence inside her mind, the voices of the rest of the Hive absent for the first time in her life. She felt slow and stupid without their collective intelligence bolstering her own, and concepts which had been simple mere seconds ago were now complicated and confusing. She could barely remember what she'd been doing before the blue attacker had arrived.

With mounting horror, she spotted a pair of long, thin appendages floating lazily through space, and she realized that they were her own antennae, which the attacker had severed. She was crippled! She would be cut off from the mind of the Hive forever!

Her species lacked any word that meant "alone", since they normally didn't understand the concept. But she understood it now. She understood it very well indeed.

The blue monster said something she didn't understand, then put her into a large, clear container, sealing it. She was so disoriented and muddled that she didn't even struggle.

Then—

* * *

A beam of blue white death streaked past the Blue Beetle, coming far too close to the armored superwoman for comfort and jolting her out of the state the Angel had put her in.

She could still feel the gruesome scenes playing out in the back of her mind, like a computer program quietly running in the background while the user worked on something else. She could still feel what it had been like for the scarab as the aliens cut it open without anesthetic, grafting mechanical parts into it and making it more machine than flesh, then rewriting its DNA and its mind, again with no thought to its comfort.

Across her mental link with the scarab, she could tell it was going through something similar, except with _her_ memories. She could pick up vague snatches of some of the countless times her mother had belittled her running through its head, along with some of her more unpleasant encounters with Gendo Ikari.

_So this is what the Angel does,_ she thought, trying to ignore the extremely distracting scenes playing out in both their minds. _But two people sharing this body must have confused it…_

She supposed that meant it was a good thing that the Angel had turned its attention toward her rather than the Evangelion pilots down on Earth, but at the moment she just wanted the tortures that had occurred in the scarab's past to stop playing like a movie in the back of her brain.

She tried to fly out of the path of the light beam the Angel was projecting, but it followed her no matter how quickly she moved, like a strobe light.

"Okay, clearly we're going to have to do this while it's attacking us," Blue Beetle grumbled, noting that her absurdly huge gun had vanished while she and the scarab had endured the brunt of the Angel's attack. "Give me that Ragnarok Cannon thing again."

_**(You got it.)**_ The scarab replied, itself struggling to ignore the Angel's attack.

Again, the gun emerged from out of her armor, though notably more slowly than it had last time, and Blue Beetle pointed the weapon at the Angel. The weapon hummed dangerously as it powered up.

_**(Firing in three…two…one!)**_

Nothing happened.

No blast of bright blue death erupted forth from the wide barrel of the weapon. The humming grew softer and then eventually fell silent.

"Something wrong?" she asked, irritated. The Angel's attack was _really_ grating on her.

_**(Uh, yeah.)**_ The scarab replied sheepishly.

Rather than taking the time to explain, the chunk of alien hardware in her head sent all the information directly to her in the form of a thought rather than dialogue, allowing the Blue Beetle to instantly understand.

In order to fire the Ragnarok Cannon, the scarab needed to overcharge the armor's power source. However, it couldn't do that safely and work the gun at the same time while the Angel was attacking them; it was being forced to devote too much of its processing power toward the task of paying at least some attention to her bad memories.

"What do we do?!" she demanded.

_**(I don't know!)**_ The scarab replied. _**(But we'd better do it fast! I estimate that we have about five minutes before this does seriously bad things to both our brains!)**_

"Wonderful!" she replied, again trying futilely to escape the beam of pinkish light.

She started frantically going through a list of functions she could still use even with the scarab in its impaired state, and unleashed some of the most powerful attacks they could muster at the Angel. Unfortunately, all of them impacted harmlessly on the crystalline creature's AT field, even at such close range.

The Blue Beetle was nearly ready to despair when another blast from NERV's biggest positron rifle streaked up into the blackness of space, again landing a hit on the Angel that did nothing.

_**(…Ritsuko?)**_ The scarab spoke up.

"Yes?" she replied.

_**(I have a really dumb idea.)**_ It told her.

"…this is going to hurt like hell, isn't it?" she grimaced, suspecting she already had a good idea what it had in mind.

_**(Doesn't it always?)**_ The scarab asked.

"True," Blue Beetle groaned. "What's the plan?"

The scarab communicated it to her, and Blue Beetle groaned as her suspicions were proven correct. This _was_ going to hurt like hell.

Seeing no other choice, she moved herself into position, a new gun barrel emerging from the armor, along with a strange apparatus sprouting from her back. The Blue Beetle positioned herself in exactly the right spot and waited.

_**(Hey, you know, it's not too late to back out of this.)**_ The scarab said quietly.

Blue Beetle grimaced. If even the scarab was fearful of what they were about to do, then it was _really_ going to hurt. However, her resolve didn't waver.

"No," she said. "If we run away, then it'll turn on the EVA pilots. Besides, we're _so_ close to getting NERV's funding pulled. We can't stop now."

_**(Okay.)**_ The scarab said.

Down on Earth, Unit Two fired the positron rifle one more time. Blue Beetle didn't even have to turn her head to look back at it; her armor's sensors calculated its trajectory, allowing her to adjust her position.

Then the beam struck her back, and she screamed.

It was the worst pain she'd experienced yet, even counting when Deathstroke had so recently run her through. She felt like a lightning bolt was coursing through her, except unlike lighting, it just kept going on and on, causing every nerve ending she possessed to howl with agony.

Yet her armor did its job. The antimatter particles from the quickly deteriorating beam were collected by the gadget on her back, funneled through her armor, and burst forth from the gun on her arm as a _much_ more focused bolt of energy, only about as thick as a pencil.

The bolt of highly focused antimatter easily pierced the Angel's AT field this time, then speared right through the core embedded in the center of its body, thanks to the scarab's sophisticated targeting computers.

For a moment, the Angel seemed to ignore the damage done to its most vital part, and an exhausted Blue Beetle wondered with dismay if she would have to continue doing battle with it.

Then the glow pink wings abruptly exploded, pieces flying in all directions. The shards of crystal bounced harmlessly off Blue Beetle's armor, but the shock wave from the explosion sent the sapphire superwoman tumbling end over end through the blackness of outer space.

After all the punishment she had taken lately, it was just too much. Blue Beetle's eyes drifted shut as both she and the scarab passed out, leaving them to drift quietly through the darkness of outer space.

* * *

"The MAGI are no longer picking up a blue pattern," Maya announced from her place on the NERV command center. "The Angel has been destroyed."

"Who killed it?" Gendo asked, his hands folded in front of his face.

The three bridge techs winced. They'd known, of course, that he would ask that, given the fierce competition between NERV and the JSSDF for control of the war, but that didn't mean they had the answer.

"It's difficult to say, sir," Aoba said. "The Angel destroyed a lot of the monitoring satellites in the air before combat began, and the positron rifle creates a lot of interference when it fires."

"Oh, come on!" Asuka exclaimed, as a communications window from Unit Two popped up on the main viewer. "I shot at it, and it died a couple of seconds later! What more do you need to know that I killed it?"

Gendo glanced down at the bridge techs, as though to say that the redhead made a fair point.

"According to the MAGI's calculations, the timing was a little off for it to have been Unit Two's attack with the positron rifle," Makoto said. "And we can't explain why the third shot would've killed the Angel after the first two failed to breach its AT field."

"There's not enough information to make a firm conclusion on who got the kill shot at this time, sir," Maya said.

Asuka scoffed at this, clearly of the opinion that there was _plenty_ of evidence that she had gotten the kill, but Gendo ignored her. It wasn't difficult to see that, though they were reluctant to call it either way, the trio of technicians were clearly leaning toward the conclusion that Blue Beetle had gotten the kill.

The JSSDF, and NERV's other detractors, wouldn't be so hesitant about proclaiming Blue Beetle the victor, he knew.

"Major," he said, getting up from his chair. "You have command."

"Yes, sir," Misato replied, then quickly began to issue orders to recall the Evangelions and transform the city back to its peacetime configuration.

The Commander paused just long enough to glare briefly at the hologram of Ritsuko that was standing behind Ibuki. Then he stepped through the door behind his chair and left the command center.

* * *

"This emergency meeting of the SEELE council is now in session."

To any outside observer, it might have seemed strange, watching the secretive cabal going through many of the same formal motions that their public face, the Human Instrumentality Committee followed. However, all the men hidden behind their blank monolith avatars were used to boardrooms, places of governance, and other locations were protocol was always observed as a matter of course. It came naturally to them; they were all familiar with it.

What they weren't familiar with was the feeling of intense panic that came with watching as years and years of work threatened to go to waste.

"I trust you've all read the reports," SEELE 01 spoke into the dark, virtual meeting chamber.

"Yes," SEELE 11 spoke up, "I think it's fair to say that we have."

The reports, of course, were preliminary summaries of the latest Angel battle. There were still many questions present, but they were nevertheless extremely disconcerting.

"I never would have imagined that Ikari would let things get so bad," SEELE 07 grumbled. "He _knew_ that NERV needed a victory."

"Blue Beetle blindsided all of us," SEELE 04 said. "I doubt Ikari just _let_ her beat NERV to this one."

"Regardless, Ikari seems to have failed us," SEELE 05 spoke up.

"Seems to have," SEELE 02 pointed out. "The JSSDF has remained curiosity silent so far."

"It's only been a few hours since the battle," SEELE 05 said.

"I would've expected them to have claimed the victory within minutes of its end," SEELE 02 countered. "That they have not yet makes me think there's something we don't know. Perhaps NERV really did kill the Angel, and they'd just rather we have to figure that out for ourselves. Or perhaps Blue Beetle died." He added hopefully. "Without her, they lose all credibility when claiming they can replace NERV, regardless of who killed this last Angel."

"We can't depend on that, welcome news though it would be," SEELE 01 said. "We must assume that the JSSDF will soon claim that it was their operative that killed the Angel, and NERV's funding should be revoked."

"NERV's funding cannot be revoked without the agreement of the UN Security Council," SEELE 08 pointed out. "And we control most of the members."

"Yes, but mostly by threatening to reveal or fabricate career-ending scandals about them," SEELE 07 retorted. "Public sentiment against NERV has grown so powerful that if they block a resolution to cease funding them, they will removed from their positions anyway!"

"My people still have the Chinese representative's daughter in custody," SEELE 12 spoke up. "He will never disobey me."

"But he can be replaced," SEELE 07 said. "We may have to accept that the disbanding of NERV is inevitable, and that we can only delay it."

"Then let's hope we can delay it long enough, because if NERV is disbanded before the proper time, then the Scenario is ruined," SEELE 01 said grimly.

* * *

Long after the latest battle against an Angel, when night had long since fallen upon the city of Tokyo-3, a figure surrounded by an aura of emerald light soared into the air, rising so quickly into the dark sky that she seemed to become a green star in the heavens.

"Ring, locate Ritsuko," Green Lantern ordered as she reached the edge of the Earth's atmosphere.

A thin beam of jade light burst out of her power ring, then snaked off into the distance. Green Lantern quickly followed it, rising into outer space itself.

It wasn't long before she found Blue Beetle drifting aimlessly in the zero gravity emptiness outside the planet's atmosphere.

"Oh, Rits," she sighed. "Ring, medical scan."

Green light came from her ring and then swept harmlessly over Blue Beetle's limp form. A second later, a readout appeared above the ring in glowing green kanji, and Green Lantern heaved a sigh of relief.

Her friend was all right. All the abuse she'd taken recently had just caught up to her, and the scarab, knocking them out as their bodies at last demanded rest.

Gathering the sapphire superwoman up in her arms, Green Lantern headed back to Earth, enclosing them in a force bubble as they descended to avoid the more unpleasant effects of reentry. Once they were safely back in the Earth's atmosphere, she guided them to Ritsuko's home, taking care not to be seen on the way.

"There we go," Green Lantern said as she lay Blue Beetle down in her bed.

She was about to leave, then, but she hesitated, not liking the idea of leaving her friend like this, still clad in her armor and oblivious to the world around her. If the Commander chose this moment to send another Section Two thug to snoop around Ritsuko's home, it could mean disaster.

"Ring, is there anything we can do for her?" she asked. "Maybe at least take that armor off of her?"

_"It is unlikely that this ring can remove the armor without causing grievous harm to the wearer,"_ the ring stated in its perpetually flat voice. _"However, this ring can reboot the AI in the wearer's back."_

"Okay, do that, then," Green Lantern said. "The scarab should be able to get rid of the armor, at least."

Her ring pulsed, and for a second, it seemed as though nothing happened. Then, the Blue Beetle let out a loud groan and sat up, the armor appearing to melt off of her as she moved.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead," Green Lantern said.

Then with a thought and brief flare of jade light, she dispelled her superwoman attire, once again taking on the form and appearance of Misato Katsuragi.

"Ugh, what time is it?" Ritsuko asked, rubbing her temples.

"It's after ten o'clock at night," the Ops Director answered. "You've just been floating around. I would've gotten you earlier, but I couldn't get away until now. You know how it is after a battle." She added apologetically.

"Yeah, thanks," Ritsuko said.

"So, what exactly happened up there, anyway?" Misato sighed.

The blonde sighed, clearly not keen on the idea of going over all of that, but she launched into the tale anyway, telling the Ops Director about the Angel's attack and how she had managed to concentrate Asuka's attack so it would actually kill the Angel.

"So, it was sort of a team effort, then," Misato concluded.

"I guess you could say that, yes," Ritsuko allowed.

The Ops Director's eyes narrowed. "But somehow, I get the feeling that you won't be mentioning that when you report back to your buddies in the JSSDF."

Ritsuko couldn't help but wince a little at that. "No, I won't," she admitted. "And I'm guessing I'll be the only person able to provide any decent footage of the end of the battle?" Misato nodded. "Then it should be easy to get away with."

"And if I tell people the Blue Beetle's not being honest, everyone will want to know how I know that," Misato shook her head. "You know it'll probably mean the end of NERV if you and the JSSDF get to claim all the credit for this one, right?"

Ritsuko nodded. "And then we can fight the Angels together—as Blue Beetle and Green Lantern—while the Children don't have to risk their lives anymore."

Misato hadn't forgotten about that, and the idea still appealed to her, but she never had liked how secretive Ritsuko was being about this whole thing. The way she had been maneuvering around everybody didn't sit well with her, either.

However, there was little she could about it, not without revealing that she was the Green Lantern.

"Fine," she said. "Just do me a favor and take tomorrow off, okay? You _really_ need some R&R after the last couple of days you've had."

"Nonsense," Ritsuko scoffed. "I'll have no trouble going to work tomorrow. After all, I'm not as old as I used to be. Body of a strapping twenty-something and all that." She added, flexing her arms for emphasis.

Misato rolled her eyes. "You're crazy, you know that?" she asked. "What could be the harm in taking a day off? Hell, if I had a high-tech stand-in like you do, you'd barely get me in headquarters once a week unless there was a battle!"

Ritsuko couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Why do I not have a hard time believing that?" she asked. "Anyway, to answer your question, I just can't help but feel that something bad will happen if I let holo-Ritsuko take my place for too long."

"Fine, whatever," Misato relented. "Just don't come complaining to me when you get in trouble for sleeping on the job tomorrow."

"I won't," Ritsuko said.

"I should really get back home with Shinji and Asuka," Misato said. "I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Night," Ritsuko replied.

_**(She's a little annoyed.)**_ The scarab observed as the Ops Director vanished from sight.

"I can hardly blame her," Ritsuko said. "Would you get Katsuro on the line for me? I need to report in."

The following to the JSSDF, who was almost apoplectic with relief at learning the Blue Beetle was still alive, probably lasted all of twenty minutes, but it felt like an eternity to Ritsuko. Yet it finally ended, with Katsuro quite satisfied by her promise to send him footage that would "prove" she, and not NERV, had slain the Angel.

_**(I'm transmitting the recording now.)**_ The scarab said as she finally terminated the call.

"Good," Ritsuko said, rubbing her eyes. She was so absolutely exhausted, but she couldn't sleep quite yet. There was one more thing she had to do. "Scarab, did you see what the Angel showed me?"

_**(Not really. I just got a glimpse here and there. Why?)**_ It asked.

"I think you should take a look at it," she said.

_**(All right.) **_The scarab said, with the mental equivalent of a shrug.

It went pawing through her mind for the memories in question, and Ritsuko guided it to them. She waited for several seconds as it reviewed them repeatedly.

_**(I don't remember any of this.)**_ It said quietly.

"I'm not surprised," Ritsuko replied. "But it does seem to reveal a lot about you. Apparently, you were part of a species that lives in asteroids, and you were abducted for the express purpose of being turned into a weapon. They probably used your species because you're so used to being connected to the minds of others, and because you can apparently survive everything they put you through."

_**(They took me away from my home, my people.)**_ The scarab said in a small voice.

"Yes, they did," Ritsuko said. "I'm sorry."

_**(It's not your fault.)**_ The scarab said. _**(After all, you promised you'd help me find out about my origins, and you just did. I can hardly blame you because they suck.)**_

"I know," Ritsuko said. "Still, it's far from ideal."

_**(That's true. But it makes me even more grateful that whatever commands those aliens programmed me with got lost, and that I ended up working with you instead.)**_ The scarab said, brightening.

Ritsuko smiled, touched.

_**(And with any luck, we'll never even hear from the aliens that did that to me ever again.)**_ The scarab said.

The blonde chuckled. "After everything else we've had to deal with, I'd say the universe owes us at least _that_ much." She yawned. "God, I'm beat. I'm going to sleep. Night."

_**(Good night.)**_ The scarab replied, and in seconds, both of them were enjoying a well deserved rest.

* * *

The next morning, NERV headquarters was already abuzz about the assumedly imminent disbanding of the agency. Ritsuko had reported in to General Katsuro the previous night and had sent him some footage of the battle that made it appear as though the Blue Beetle had destroyed the Angel all by herself. The flag officer had, in turn, not hesitated to claim all responsibility for the Angel's defeat in behalf of the JSSDF and their special taskforce.

A vote was already scheduled to take place at the UN in a few days on the matter of NERV's funding, in fact.

For her own part, however, Ritsuko ignored all the speculation, and she advised all her underlings to do the same. It wasn't that she was uninterested in NERV's fate, of course; she had gone to an enormous amount of trouble to try and get the paramilitary's all important funding yanked, after all.

However, chatting about it wasn't going to help anything, and for all the bravado she had displayed last night, Ritsuko was exhausted, both physically and emotionally. She just wanted a boring and completely ordinary day for once.

Up until late afternoon, she got one.

Then, only half an hour before she would have clocked out and left for the day, the phone on her desk beeped loudly.

"Akagi here," she answered, picking it up.

"It's me," the unmistakable voice of Gendo Ikari replied. "Come down to Terminal Dogma immediately. It's important."

"Yes, sir," Ritsuko said automatically, but he'd already hung up.

_**(That doesn't sound good.)**_ The scarab said.

_I'm sure it's nothing,_ Ritsuko replied silently as she got up from her desk. _Ikari calls me down there like this all time, and it's usually for the most mundane things. Honestly, I think the man likes enigma for its own sake._

_**(Hey, maybe he wants you to make him an anti-Blue Beetle weapon.)**_ The scarab suggested.

Ritsuko couldn't help but smirk briefly at that. _I think it's a little late for that, but it would be very comforting if that's what he wants._

In minutes, she had reached the restricted elevator that went down to Terminal Dogma. She slid her ID card through the reader next to the door, then punched her pass code into the number pad below it, making the doors open. Trying to quell the foolish sense of trepidation rising inside of her, she stepped inside the elevator car. A second later, the doors slid shut and it started to descend.

There were no buttons inside this one, which she supposed made sense, since there were only two floors this elevator could stop at. Still, it had always unnerved her.

Eventually, the elevator reached NERV headquarters' restricted sub-sub-basement, and Ritsuko stepped out into the dimly lit chambers, initially seeing no sign of the Commander. Grumbling softly to herself with annoyance, she set out to look for him. Fortunately, though Terminal Dogma was vast, it was mostly divided up into only a handful of enormous chambers, so checking all the rooms wouldn't take very long.

_Honestly, he couldn't have made this any more annoying if he tried,_ she thought. All she wanted to do was go home, have something to eat, take a nice hot bath, and then collapse into bed.

She finally found him in the last room she decided to search. It was probably the least important chamber of Terminal Dogma, being used mostly as a place to store various items and documents that the Commander wouldn't feel comfortable keeping in even the most high security areas of Central Dogma.

"You wanted to speak to me in private, Commander?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Hmm, yes," Gendo replied absently, not even looking at her.

Ritsuko knew she should've been annoyed at having been abruptly summoned and then subsequently ignored by Gendo. However, all she could feel was a rising sense of trepidation. Something about the way he was gazing at one of the walls was unnerving her, but her tired brain couldn't quite puzzle out why.

"May I ask why, sir?" she questioned eventually when he didn't speak again.

"It has come to my attention that the continued existence of NERV is very much in jeopardy," Gendo said, finally turning his head to look at her, "thanks mostly to the efforts of the Blue Beetle."

Ritsuko tried to act as though he hadn't just stated the obvious. "Yes, sir," she agreed. "…Do you want me to try to find something that can stop her? A way to sabotage her armor?"

"That will not be necessary," Gendo said, turning to look back at that spot on the wall again.

Finally, it clicked inside Ritsuko's mind.

She was getting so freaked out by the way he kept looking at a blank wall instead of at her because she had seen him do it before, not in her own life, but in that of the other version of her, the one that had been known as the Scarlet Scarab. That spot on the wall was where the hidden weapons would emerge.

Eyes widening, she looked down at his gloved hand, spotting a tiny remote control clutched in his grip that she hadn't noticed before.

Ritsuko opened her mouth to shout, to yell at him not to do it.

Gendo pushed the button before a single syllable could escape her.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And so poor Ritsuko's worst nightmare comes to pass. Will she escape her alternate self's fate? You'll have to check back next chapter to find out.

I'm not entirely sure if the picture of the scarabs I'm painting here is accurate. The Reach Negotiator seems to imply that the scarabs weren't genetic constructs of the Reach, but I had trouble following the comic after issue 25, so it's possible that was later contradicted. Either way, finding a suitable species for their plans and then modifying the hell out of them in such a fashion seems like something the Reach would do.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

* * *

Omake!

You Get What You Pay For

Eyes widening, she looked down at his gloved hand, spotting a tiny remote control clutched in his grip that she hadn't noticed before.

Ritsuko opened her mouth to shout, to yell at him not to do it.

Gendo pushed the button before a single syllable could escape her.

Nothing happened.

"Uh…"

The seconds soon started to drag out awkwardly.

"Damn it," the Commander cursed, pressing the button several more times. "Just give me a second here…"

"Technical difficulties?" Ritsuko asked, while the scarab laughed hysterically.

"I should've known not to let the lowest bidder install this trap," Gendo grumbled, for once looking embarrassed. "But it worked so well for the EVA ejection system and the pallet rifles…"


	14. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen:** Desperate Measures

The world seemed to move in slow motion as Ritsuko Akagi watched her worst nightmare coming to life. The unmitigated disaster that her counterpart in that other dimension had gone through was about to happen to her.

She watched as hidden emitters in the walls of Terminal Dogma slid out of their hiding places. Crackling tongues of blue energy sparked around the emitters before they streaked out through the air, about to converge on the very spot where she was standing.

The blonde moved, trying to get out of the way of the high tech onslaught, but even as she did, she knew that she was too late, too slow, to avoid the surprise attack, even though she had a split second more to react than her unfortunate counterpart had had.

She might've been too slow, but the scarab wasn't. Barely.

In an instant, she was in her azure and black armor, the Blue Beetle once again. Yet even with the alien materials offering her some protection, the sapphire superwoman couldn't just shrug off the assault. She threw her head back and cried out in pain, staggering back a step.

Still, when the assault ended, she remained conscious. She was even still on her feet, though she felt that a stiff breeze could've knocked her right over.

She really had been through too much damn punishment lately, a small, strangely detached part of her mind mused.

_**(Ritsuko, I think the time for all this subtly stuff you're so into is over.)**_ The scarab said.

_I think you're right,_ she agreed, deciding to ignore how pleased it sounded about it.

With a quick mental command from her, the armor covering her right hand and forearm shifted, forming a long firearm. It was not the non-lethal Suppression Rifle.

"I didn't want to do this," she said as she trained the weapon on Gendo, the gun releasing a menacing hum.

The Commander of NERV didn't beg for mercy. He didn't say anything at all, actually.

Instead, he just pushed the button on that damn remote of his again.

Lightning burst forth from the walls a second time, and Blue Beetle screamed again, her legs buckling as she fell to one knee.

In hindsight, she really should've moved away from the spot that all the damned wall emitters were aimed at before she'd threatened Gendo. Misato would've remembered to do that, being military and all. Unfortunately, brilliant scientist though she was, the computer nerd turned super heroine that she was still missed those kinds of things.

The attack finally cut off, and Blue Beetle shakily raised her weapon once more.

Gendo hit the button again and held it down this time.

"_Ahhh!_" Blue Beetle screamed, her other leg giving out and leaving her now down on both knees.

_Scarab, get me out of here!_ She thought desperately.

_**(On it!)**_

The chunk of alien hardware in her back immediately shifted her out of phase with the rest of their reality. The attacks bombarding her suddenly went straight through her, but since the scarab wasn't engaging any of the hardware that made the armor capable of flight, she ended up falling straight through the floor and into the massive chamber where NERV kept Lilith hidden, landing in the vast pool of LCL with a splash as the scarab quickly shifted them again so they were back in step with the rest of their dimension.

"That could've gone better," Blue Beetle remarked, struggling to keep her head above the surface as her muscles continued to spasm randomly from the abuse they'd just gone through.

_**(Give me a second, and I'll have you all sorted out. Then we can go back and kill him.)**_ The scarab said with its characteristic cheerful viciousness.

"It might be too late," Blue Beetle said.

_**(It's never too late to kill someone unless they're already dead.)**_ The scarab said bluntly.

"I mean it might be too late to keep it from getting out that I'm the Blue Beetle," the sapphire superwoman clarified, wondering how something that was hooked up directly to her central nervous system like the scarab was could so completely miss the point she'd been driving at sometimes. "Even if he's kept it to himself so far, I'd bet anything that he recorded all that. The video's probably already on its way to god knows where."

_**(That doesn't mean that there's nothing to be gained by killing him.)**_The scarab countered, like a dog with a bone by this point. Clearly it had its heart set on murdering Gendo Ikari.

Blue Beetle wasn't so sure that killing Gendo would be a net plus for her, though. There was no doubt in her mind that her secret was out regardless of whether she reduced him to atoms right now or not, and removing him would still leave SEELE in more or less total control of NERV. Fuyutski would never be able to check them the same way that Ikari did.

…and maybe she just didn't want to have to explain to Shinji why she had murdered his father, and see the look in his eyes as he asked her just that, creep though the elder Ikari was.

While she was mulling all of this, several doors in the walls of massive pool opened up.

"Oh crap, the Polysomes!" Blue Beetle hissed, recognizing the robots that she had deployed against the Eleventh Angel with so little success. "Ikari really planned this out. Screw it, scarab, let's get out of here!"

_**(Fine.)**_ It grumbled, irritated.

Blue Beetle phase shifted once more, just before the aquatic robots could fire their lasers at her. Then the sapphire superwoman took off, flying straight through the ceiling and back into the chamber she'd just come from.

She was unsurprised to see that Gendo was no longer present. No doubt he'd gone to execute his Plan B. And knowing him, his Plans C through F, as well.

However, even he couldn't prepare anything to thwart her phasing ability, which was why she had managed to escape this trap, and the gruesome fate her counterpart had endured. The sapphire superwoman said a quick word of thanks to the dead alternate of herself; having seen the terrible ordeal of the Scarlet Scarab was the only reason she'd escaped unharmed.

Blue Beetle continued to ascend, rushing through floors so quickly that she couldn't keep track of them, until she finally made it outside into the Geofront. Hovering invisibly and intangibly in the air above the NERV pyramid, she stopped for a moment to take one last look at it. It was only starting to sink in that she wouldn't be coming back in the foreseeable future, that she wouldn't be reporting for work tomorrow morning.

Despite having escaped the trap, her life as she'd known it was over.

_**(Ritsuko? Are you okay?)**_

"Fine," she replied. "We have to get back to my place and get all the Reach tech and stuff there. And if I know Gendo half as well as I think I do, we only have minutes to do that."

_**(Then let's go.)**_

* * *

General Katsuro, flag officer of the JSSDF and head of that force's special anti-Angel taskforce, was having a good day.

There were no ceremonial events or stupid publicity stunts on his schedule for at least the next week, which he always viewed as a good reason to be happy. The production of the new Reach tech military hardware was continuing at a brisk pace, more so now that the other branches of the military were getting interested in the stuff. Also, according to the news, the UN Security Council had scheduled a vote on whether to slash NERV's main budget.

The measure wasn't expected to pass. Considering that any motion needed the unanimous approval of the council's five permanent member nations in addition to a simple majority in order to pass, most things didn't.

However, the mere fact that it was being brought up at all was progress. Not long ago, the very idea of pulling the bulk of NERV's funding—effectively disbanding the organization, or at least thoroughly de-clawing it—would've been utterly unthinkable.

_If things keep working out so well, NERV and Gendo Ikari will be finished pretty soon,_ he thought with a smirk on his face as he sat down behind his desk and grabbed hold of his coffee mug.

Considering that Blue Beetle had informed him she suspected that NERV was responsible for the attack on their base, he had high hopes of being able to sound the group's death knell any day.

So it made what happened next an even worse shock than it would've been.

A tentative knock sounded from his door.

"Enter," Katsuro grunted, looking up from the paperwork he'd only just started.

A pretty young woman, one of the base's military secretaries, poked her head inside, looking nervous.

"Excuse me for interrupting, General," she began, "but there's been a…development."

Katsuro frowned. "Well? Don't leave me in suspense. Spit it out already."

The secretary hesitated. "I'm sorry, sir, but I really think it would be better if you saw this for yourself."

Now getting worried, Katsuro got up from his desk and followed the secretary to a nearby lounge where a television playing the news was present. A number of the base's staff were clustered around it, but they quickly made way when they saw the general approaching.

The officer nearly did a double take when he saw the caption at the bottom of the screen.

It read "Blue Beetle attacks Commander of NERV, revealed to be member of NERV staff."

Meanwhile, the rest of the screen was showing an image of the alleged attack. The Blue Beetle was shown in a dark room, pointing a weapon mounted on her arm directly at Gendo Ikari himself.

"The details are all still coming in now," the off screen anchorwoman said as Katsuro got in front of the TV. "However, our staff at Channel Four News has examined this image and found no evidence that it was tampered with or edited in any way.

"As usual, NERV is not being forthcoming with details. They have confirmed that Commander Ikari is alive and unharmed, but have not explained how he was able to escape the apparent assassination attack," the anchorwoman continued. "In addition, NERV has stated that Commander Ikari did see the Blue Beetle transform, and that she is none other than a member of NERV Central, Doctor Ritsuko Akagi."

The image shifted to a photograph of the woman in question, a blonde with green eyes.

Dimly, some weirdly detached part of Katsuro's mind mused that she would've looked a lot prettier if she smiled.

"As of right now, NERV has not issued any further statements on the matter, but that could change at any moment," the anchor went on. "Channel Four News has not yet managed to reach either the Diet or JSSDF command for comment. We will bring you more on this story as it develops."

The news program then shifted to some other story, but Katsuro wasn't paying attention. His mind was already reeling as he tried to think about what would come next.

The answer to that question, unfortunately, came all too quickly.

"Excuse me, sir?" one of his aides approached him. "The Prime Minister is on the phone for you."

* * *

Once it reached the media, the story of how Blue Beetle was actually a member of the NERV staff immediately spread like wildfire across all of Tokyo-3, and from there, the rest of the world.

It wasn't all the surprising, given how the Blue Beetle had rapidly become a very public figure. The world had watched her rise to become a well known superwoman, a destroyer of Angels, and then the JSSDF's ace in the hole. It was only natural that they'd be captivated by her fall as well.

Of course, different people reacted to the news in different ways. Many of the NERV personnel, especially the members of Technical Division One, expressed disbelief over the revelation. Many of them had, after all, seen Ritsuko during times when it was known that the Blue Beetle had been out and about.

Many others just felt betrayed, either by a co-worker they had known and trusted, if not necessarily liked (Ritsuko Akagi was known to be a very tough, even brutal boss, after all), or by a hero they had seen and placed their faith and hopes in.

Still others had a different reaction…

"I _knew_ it!" Asuka exclaimed that evening in the apartment she shared with Misato and Shinji. "I _knew_ it! I knew that the Blue Beetle couldn't be trusted!"

Seated at the kitchen table with a tall can of beer from her expensive stash, Misato didn't say anything. She just rolled her eyes and continued to sit there and look miserable.

Shinji, however, was apparently feeling in a more argumentative mood.

"Asuka, how can you say that?" he asked, frowning.

"What? Are you calling the Commander a liar or something?" the redhead demanded, getting right in his face.

"N-No," Shinji admitted, before quickly regaining his composure, "but we don't know everything yet."

"What's ambiguous about a picture of the Blue Beetle pointing a gun in the Commander's face?" Asuka countered with obvious disbelief. "There's not a whole lot of room for interpretation there."

"Maybe not, but the Blue Beetle's saved us a bunch of times," Shinji pointed out. "We might very well be _dead_ if it wasn't for her. So I think she deserves the benefit of the doubt until we have _all_ the details."

The redhead gave him an incredulous look. "Are you really that stupid?" she asked bluntly.

Shinji's frown deepened. "What are you talking about?"

"Mein Gott, you really are!" Asuka exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "Has it occurred to you to wonder now just _why_ we needed the Blue Beetle's help all those times?"

"Uh, no."

"Stupid Shinji! She was probably _sabotaging our Evangelions!_" Asuka shouted.

Shinji took a step back, almost as if struck. "What? But that…that's crazy!" he sputtered.

"Is it?" Asuka pressed. "Akagi was obviously looking to put NERV out of business. There's no other reason why she would've joined the JSSDF and given them so much help in creating their own force to fight the Angels with. And for her, making NERV look bad would've been just as important as making the JSSDF look good. I'll bet I would've been killing Angels left and right if not for her!"

"But it's not like EVA ever shut down in the middle of combat or anything," Shinji argued weakly.

Asuka rolled her eyes. "Akagi's a genius, remember?" she asked. "She could easily make some subtle adjustments to mess up the Evangelions, and then completely cover her tracks. Hell, it was probably easy for her, since she's the one in charge of analyzing all the data after a battle."

"But…" Shinji trailed off, unable to find a weakness in the redhead's argument but still not willing to let the issue drop.

Regardless of how solid the logic might be, the Third Child couldn't quite believe that Ritsuko had betrayed them and put their lives in danger like that to further some political agenda or personal vendetta.

"I guess we should give her _some_ credit," Asuka added. "She probably could've gotten us killed if she wanted to, which would've helped the JSSDF, but she didn't. So that just makes her a traitor, instead of a murderous traitor."

Having had his fill of listening to Asuka condemn Ritsuko, Shinji just turned and headed for his room. He was unsurprised when the Second Child decided to take this as a sign of surrender.

Sliding open the door that led to his little room, the Third Child stepped inside and flopped down onto the bed with a gusty sigh. In spite of Asuka's argument and the strong evidence against Ritsuko, Shinji couldn't believe that the blond scientist could have betrayed them all like that.

The Third Child shifted his position slightly, and his head bumped into something he'd left on his bed as a result. Reaching out, he grabbed it, and he was unsurprised to discover that it was his SDAT player. Opening it, he pulled out the tape inside, seeing that it was the recording of his mother's lecture that Ritsuko had given him.

He sighed again. He had faith in Ritsuko, but he was afraid that the only reason he did was because she'd been nice to him, that he would be as loyal to anyone who was nice to him.

_Am I that…easily led along?_ He wondered, frowning.

He didn't know. He didn't really trust his own judgment, and why should he? He had never been good with people.

All he knew was that he really hoped Ritsuko was all right.

* * *

"Well, I really screwed up things this time," Ritsuko grumbled to herself.

_**(Oh, come on, you're being too hard on yourself.)**_ The scarab protested. _**(You took every precaution you could think of to keep your secret from getting out. This was probably inevitable. And besides, things aren't **_**that**_** bad.)**_

"Not relative to what we know _could_ have happened, no," Ritsuko conceded. "But still, I'm in a damn cave. Unless you're a spelunker, I really can't think of anything that says 'You seriously screwed up at life somehow' louder than being in a cave."

She looked around at her surroundings as she said this, holding back a sigh as she took in the rocky walls and the pile of equipment on the sandy ground.

Following her flight from NERV headquarters, Blue Beetle had grabbed all the Reach tech from her home and then gone out and…commandeered a few other pieces from here and there. Only once she'd collected an absurd amount of hardware did she realize that she had no place to actually go with all of it.

She'd wanted to stay, if not in Tokyo-3, then at least somewhere with civilization. After all, civilization was where things like running water were. However, given her need to avoid detection while she did what she had to, it had ultimately become clear that she needed to be away from people.

Thus, a cave. Specifically, a cave by Yuaki Harbor, which was located just between Tokyo-2 and Tokyo-3.

She was in the process of enhancing the generator she'd obtained with Reach tech when the scarab informed her that she was getting a call on the Blue Phone.

Ritsuko sighed. "Knew this was going to come sooner or later," she muttered. "Let's answer it, scarab."

_**(Right.)**_ The scarab replied as it quickly put her in the armor.

"General Katsuro?" Blue Beetle said.

"Yes, it's me, Beetle," he replied, sounding incredibly harried and tired. "Or perhaps I should call you Doctor Ritsuko Akagi."

Blue Beetle couldn't help but wince. "That wouldn't be inaccurate."

"So, you work for NERV," Katsuro said.

"Worked," she corrected the general. "I think it's safe to say that my tenure as the chairperson of Project-E is over."

Katsuro ignored her. "Do you have any idea the kind of nightmare this knowledge has unleashed?"

"I can imagine," she replied.

"No, I'm not sure that you can," he growled. "Every superior I have, both in the military and the civilian government, has been calling me up and demanding answers. The media is parked right outside my home, and they seem to be setting up for the long haul. The god damn UN Secretary General wants a word with me. Oh, and Commander Ikari's put through a few calls to my office as well. All of them want answers that I don't have, except maybe for your former employer. They _all_ know that I _didn't_ know who you were under that armor, even though I told everyone I was aware of your identity. The reputation of the JSSDF is more heavily stained than ever."

The volume of his voice rose steadily as he delivered this tirade. Blue Beetle reflexively tried to pull her ear away from the phone, but since the "phone" was inside her helmet, this didn't work.

"I'm sorry, General," she said once she was sure he was finished. There didn't seem to be much else she could say in response to that. "What do you want me to do?" she asked.

Of course, she had her own agenda, so if the general's desires conflicted with that, then that was just too bad. However, she _had_ ultimately brought a lot of trouble down upon Katsuro and his branch of the military, so if there was any way she could alleviate his difficulties without endangering everything she was working toward, then she felt obligated to try and help him.

"First, answer me this," Katsuro said, "did you ever sabotage an Evangelion or anything else used by NERV to make yourself or the JSSDF look better?"

"Absolutely not," she answered immediately.

"All right, well, at least there's that," Katsuro said.

_**(You did sabotage the Jet Alone to make NERV look better, though.)**_ The scarab put in.

_Quiet, you,_ Blue Beetle replied.

"Are people really saying that I did that?" she asked the general. "I would never endanger any of the EVA pilots like that!"  
"Good luck getting anyone to believe that, though," Katsuro grunted. "Look, just stay hidden for a while, if you can. This is one hell of a mess, but it's possible that it could die down eventually, especially if NERV somehow drops that ball in a way that doesn't immediately result in the death of us all. People can be very forgiving of someone's sins when their survival is at stake. I, or more likely my replacement, _might_ have use of you at some point, but only if nothing _else_ happens."

"I understand, sir," Blue Beetle said.

"Good," Katsuro grunted. "Also, until such as a time comes that everyone becomes more willing to forget your sins, it would be unwise for us to have any further contact after this. Or for you to have contact with anyone in the JSSDF, for that matter."

"I understand," Blue Beetle said again.

The general chuckled grimly. "Who knows, maybe if things go well, you'll be able to show your face in public again in time for you to attend the party to celebrate my retirement, which I'm sure is imminent," he said. "Sayonara, Dr. Akagi."

"Good bye, General."

He terminated the call then, and for a moment, all was quiet inside the little cave that Ritsuko had reluctantly made her new home.

_**(Well, that could've gone worse.)**_ The scarab observed.

"It could've gone better, too," Blue Beetle said with a sigh.

Shedding the armor, Ritsuko got back to the task of setting up her hideout, silently making the connections between the various pieces of hardware she had, both those from her home and the others ones she'd picked up on the way.

_**(Ritsuko, are you okay?)**_ The scarab asked quietly after she had spent several minutes working in complete, dour silence.

"What do you think, scarab?" she asked.

_**(Probably not.)**_ The scarab replied.

"Probably not," she agreed.

_**(But why?)**_ The scarab asked, and she was surprised by how dismayed it sounded. _**(I mean, we escaped the Scarlet Scarab's fate! That has to count for something! You should be happy about that! Or at least relieved!)**_

"I know, and I _am_ relieved," she said. "But I guess I just…"

_**(Just what?)**_ The scarab prompted.

"I'm just feeling pretty…disheartened, I guess," she said. "Things were going so well. It looked like we were actually going to succeed in getting NERV disbanded and saving the damn world. I actually got my hopes up, which believe me, hasn't happened in a long time. Then just like that, Ikari turns it around on us, and it looks like a safe bet that he's going to get to carry out his precious Scenario. He's going to win. He always wins." She finished in little more than a whisper.

_**(Ritsuko!)**_

She jumped, caught off guard by the scarab's shout. "What?!" she demanded, annoyed.

_**(That's no way to talk!)**_ The scarab scolded her sternly. _**(Gendo Ikari hasn't beaten us until we're dead, or lobotomized like the Scarlet Scarab was. Or if we give up.) **_It added meaningfully. _**(The whole plan to get the UN to pull NERV's funding may have fallen apart, but you still have me and the armor. Not to mention all the knowledge of advanced Reach technology that's stored in my database. There's more than one way to skin a rat.)**_

"Cat," she corrected the scarab. "There's more than one way to skin a _cat_."

_**(Whatever!)**_ The scarab said, immediately going from pep talk to the verge of a temper tantrum. Ritsuko had to admit she was rather relieved by the shift; she was much more used to the scarab acting childish. _**(The point is that there's no reason to give up just because we've been dealt a setback! The world's at stake! And so are the lives of Shinji and Misato and Maya! Also, that figure of speech makes no sense and is barbaric anyway!)**_

"This coming from a being whose solution to everything is a bigger gun and more explosions," Ritsuko retorted. "Still…I suppose you have a point."

_**(Well, of **_**course**_** I do!)**_

The blonde couldn't help but smirk at how the scarab managed to sound triumphant and exasperated at once. She connected one last wire. "I think I'm finished setting all this up," she said.

_**(Let me check…yes, all our activity inside this cave should be completely undetectable by anyone not using Reach tech sensors.)**_ The scarab confirmed.

"Which we never gave anyone," Ritsuko added.

_**(That's right. It looks like you're done.)**_

"No, I'm not," Ritsuko said, gathering up all the spare components she had. "In fact, I've only started. After all, the people I care about are still in danger from SEELE and Ikari's crazy Scenario."

If the scarab had had a human face, it would've been grinning smugly.

* * *

Located in the Volga district of Russia, the Totskoye Air Base had been used heavily during the time of the Soviet Union, then shut down just prior to Second Impact, only for the Russian government to quickly reactivate it when the Impact Wars had commenced. Following the signing of the Saint Valentine's Day Treaty, which had ended that conflict, the base had again been closed.

Officially, it was still closed.

In reality, the base had been quietly reopened by order of the Human Instrumentality Committee's Chairman Keel, for the purpose of Evangelion construction. It was a perfect place for such a secret project; the Totskoye range had been the sight of a nuclear test in the 1950's, which had been immediately followed by some extremely ill-advised military exercises. As a result of the scandal which had followed, the government had tightly controlled the area ever since, taking onus to any journalist's attempts to so much as have a look. The government and the military acting as though there was some great secret hidden there was the norm and aroused no suspicion.

Seated in a small watchtower on the perimeter of the main base, a young soldier by the name of Gregory was aware of the place's history but largely indifferent to it. Actions the Soviet Union had taken more than fifty years ago hardly seemed relevant to him.

Indeed, at the moment, very little that was happening seemed relevant at all to him.

"Damn place turns into a ghost town practically overnight, but do I get reassigned? _No,_" he grumbled to himself, shuffling the worn deck of cards he was using to play solitaire. "Gregory gets left behind all alone to guard the giant robot, as though someone might steal it if the thing was left unattended."

The young soldier wasn't _really_ the only one left at the base, although he would've said that it felt like it. Unit Eight, one of the new Mass Produced Evangelions, had recently been completed, and since then, people had been leaving the old base in droves. It would eventually be transported to…wherever it was the Committee intended to send it (Gregory could only assume Tokyo-3), but until then, it was the responsibility of the Russian military.

Hence, Gregory's intensely boring guard duty.

"In other news, the UN Security Council decided to preserve NERV's funding in a unanimous vote earlier today," the little radio he'd smuggled up to the watch tower crackled.

"Big surprise," Gregory said as he set up another game of solitaire with now practiced motions.

He scowled. It didn't look like he had much chance of finishing this one.

With a sigh, he reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a battered cigarette. Producing an equally battered old lighter, he struck it one, twice, three times…

_**BOOM!**_

A thunderous explosion, powerful enough to shake the ground, went off the second he managed to finally get a flame, prompting Gregory to release a cry of fright and drop the scratched Zippo to floor as he fell out of his chair. Turning the air blue with Russian profanities, Gregory climbed to his feet.

The unlit cigarette fell from his lips.

The massive steel container where Unit Eight had been housed was now no more than a smoke wreck, the area around it littered with twisted pieces of the thing's once white armor, as well as…flesh?

"I am so dead," the man moaned.

As he was gazing out at the burning wreckage, the two-way radio he had clipped to his belt crackled to life.

"Gregory, are you there? Damn it, you'd better not be sleeping!" a familiar voice barked out. "We've just gotten a message from command! Someone's been destroyed the new Evangelions in rapid succession! Look alive down there, man!"

The young soldier could only release a mirthless laugh. "He couldn't have called two minutes ago, could he?"

* * *

_**(Well, that's another one down.)**_ The scarab observed cheerfully as the Blue Beetle flew away from the Totskoye Air Base, out of shift with the rest of reality so as to avoid detection.

"Which leaves only one left to go," Blue Beetle agreed, consulting with a map she called up on her HUD. "The last one's in the States, though. SEELE will have _plenty_ of time to scramble some forces to defend it before we can get there."

_**(So what?)**_ The scarab asked dismissively. _**(Nothing they have can even see us, let alone **_**stop**_** us.)**_

"I'm worried about collateral damage, scarab," Blue Beetle answered with some irritation. "The last thing I want is to slaughter a bunch of soldiers who are only doing their jobs when I blow the last of the MP Evangelions."

_**(Oh, right. I suppose that would be bad.)**_ The scarab admitted sheepishly.

Blue Beetle supposed that, having been engineered as a weapon, the scarab really couldn't be blamed _too_ much for not giving very much thought to _preserving_ life, but it still wasn't something she could overlook, let alone encourage.

_**(If you wanted to destroy them in **_**really**_** rapid succession, we could've done that, you know.)**_ The scarab pointed out. _**(Some orbital bombardment from us would've taken care of them. With their AT Fields inactive, it wouldn't have been hard.)**_

"I know that, but if we did it that way, it would've been obvious that it was us," Blue Beetle pointed out, "and we've already made more than enough trouble for Katsuro."

_**(And you think people won't "know" that you're behind the destruction of the EVA Series?)**_ The scarab asked skeptically.

"I'm sure they will, but this is the best I can do," Blue Beetle replied. "If maintaining a little plausible deniability is the most I can give Katsuro and the JSSDF, then so be it. But we have to take out the whole EVA Series. The damn things are too powerful, and they're completely under SEELE's control. Shinji and the other pilots are in danger from the old bastards so long as they exist."

_**(And what about Gendo?)**_

"One problem at a time, scarab," Blue Beetle retorted. "Now punch it."

_**(You got it.)**_

The armor on the bottom of the sapphire superwoman's feet shifted, sprouting a pair of rockets which quickly ignited. Blue Beetle grimaced as she felt the force of acceleration pressing down on her.

_We're doing Mach 4 at the moment, right?_ She asked it, not even attempting to speak out loud.

_**(We're doing Mach 4 and still accelerating.)**_

_Have I mentioned that you're the best accessory a girl could possibly ask for?_ She queried.

_**(Yes, but not nearly often enough.)**_

In seemingly only minutes, Blue Beetle found herself traveling from the middle of Russia to the middle of the United States, specifically a NERV base in Kansas that was firmly under the control of SEELE rather than Gendo Ikari.

"Damn," Blue Beetle said as she slowed down to observe the place with her armor's advanced sensors.

Despite the breakneck pace at which she had destroyed the other Units in the EVA Series and then crossed the ocean, her prediction about SEELE having time to scramble forces proved itself completely true. What looked like an entire armor division was parked outside the base in the dusty Kansas desert, and dozens of soldiers were standing guard right next to the EVA Unit.

Blue Beetle found the latter much more of an issue than the former. The tanks she could easily bypass; with her out of step with the rest of her native dimension, they couldn't even detect her anyway. The same was true about the soldiers, of course, but Blue Beetle didn't want to kill them when she blew the last MP EVA.

"One thing at a time," she muttered to herself.

Flying through the walls of the base itself, Blue Beetle headed straight toward her target. The massive form of the EVA stood surrounded by scaffolding, with the soldiers nearby, a silent giant in white armor being defended by Lilliputians.

"God these Mass Produced Units are ugly," she whispered, feeling the need to keep quiet even though she knew the squad of armed men present couldn't hear or see her.

_**(And the other Evangelions are so pretty?)**_ The scarab asked.

"More than this," she replied.

The other Evangelions were fearsome, but there was something about these that were simply grotesque, at least so far as Blue Beetle was concerned.

Flying behind the white EVA, the sapphire superwoman affixed a blue and black cylinder about twice the size of a soda can to it. The special bomb utilized Reach tech and stayed phased until she sent it the detonate signal. It also packed the punch of a large N2 mine, more than enough to destroy an Evangelion if it didn't have to go through an AT field.

_**(Now what?)**_ The scarab asked, knowing that they'd kill over a dozen people if they simply blew the bomb.

"Now we blast those guys with the Suppression Rifle and get them out of here," Blue Beetle answered.

_**(They're armed with Reach-tech guns.)**_ The scarab warned her. _**(Those rifles can pierce even your armor.)**_

"I don't care," she replied. "I won't kill a roomful of innocent people to further my own agenda, no matter what it is. I wouldn't be any better than Gendo or Keel if I did that."

The scarab was silent for a second, then the armor on Blue Beetle's right arm started to shift and change into a weapon. _**(Suppression Rifle ready.)**_

Nodding, Blue Beetle quickly went around so she was in front of the MP EVA but behind the group of soldiers standing guard. She pointed her weapon at them.

"Now!"

The scarab phased her back into sync with the rest of reality, and Blue Beetle fired. The blast of light crashed into the group of soldiers, and about half of them collapsed limply to the ground.

The other half, unfortunately, reacted as though they'd _expected_ a sneak attack from behind. Displaying no confusion or surprise, they immediately turned and starting firing their weapons, which spat blue bolts of deadly energy her way.

Cursing, Blue Beetle quickly ducked behind the scaffolding that surrounded the MP EVA, occasionally firing her weapon at the remaining soldiers from this cover and missing every time.

Once again, the fact that she was a scientist and not a soldier definitely worked against her.

_**(You do know we're gonna have a whole damn army in here in a minute, don't you?)**_ The scarab asked.

"Shut up," Blue Beetle snapped.

_**(Hey, you were the one who insisted on saving them.)**_

She was about to retort when she heard something behind her. Turning, the Blue Beetle's eyes widened.

The MP EVA was moving. The damn thing had been activated, probably with a Dummy Plug.

_**(It's a trap!)**_

"No, really?!" Blue Beetle shouted sarcastically.

The white giant abruptly lashed out, attempting to swat her out of air like a house fly. Blue Beetle barely managed to dodge the blow, but the EVA's movement completely destroyed the scaffolding surrounding it. The heavily metal structure released a loud creak, then began to completely collapse.

_"No!"_ Blue Beetle screamed.

It was too late; hundreds of tons of twisted metal went crashing down onto the group of soldiers, instantly burying all of them. There was no way they could have possibly survived that.

"God damn it!" the sapphire superwoman swore. She hadn't wanted anyone to die, let alone a group of young men who'd just been doing their jobs. "Scarab, get ready to blow that bomb! We're getting out of here!"

_**(I can't! The detonation signal can't get through an AT Field!)**_

Blue Beetle cursed again, her mind whirling even as she dodged the attacks of the MP EVA, which were steadily bringing the whole damn building down around their ears.

She likely had only minutes, if not seconds, before the soldiers outside got close enough to be within the blast radius of the bomb, or anything else she could do that would destroy the EVA. She needed to blow the damn thing _now_ unless she wanted more innocent people to die.

"God damn it," she swore, more resigned than anything else. "Scarab, start transmitting the detonation signal continuously."

_**(Okay.)**_

Blue Beetle gave her armor a mental command, and the gun on her arm shifted, changing from the Suppression Rifle to a much largeer, more deadly firearm.

"_Die, you ugly bastard_!" Blue Beetle snarled, flying straight toward it, weapon blazing.

Azure death met the orange wall of the EVA's AT field, and for a moment, the unstoppable force battled with the immovable object.

Then Blue Beetle's weapon breached the field, and the detonation signal got through. The bomb returned to their dimension an instant before it exploded.

And the world turned white.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a virtual meeting chamber, twelve holographic monoliths were circled around an equally holographic image. It was a live feed from the Kansas NERV base.

The men hidden behind their blank avatars watched silently as Blue Beetle appeared and opened fire on the soldiers guarding the last of the Mass Produced Evangelions. None of them said a word when the EVA came to life and destroyed the structure surrounding, causing it to crush the soldiers.

The feed finally terminated when the Blue Beetle's bomb exploded.

"It is done," SEELE 01 spoke into the silence. "The Blue Beetle is dead."

"But at what cost?" SEELE 08 groused. "All the Mass Produced Evangelions are gone!"

"Frankly, the odds of stopping Blue Beetle's campaign to destroy them were always slim, especially given how quickly she carried it out," SEELE 01 replied. "In any case, we have other means of getting what we desire. Make no mistake. With the Blue Beetle eliminated, we can seize control of matters once again."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I swear, I didn't intend to end this chapter like this. I actually had a completely different conclusion in mind when I sat down to write this. But somehow I ended up leaving Ritsuko's fate extremely uncertain once again.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


End file.
